Yield of singlet oxygen from optically pumped CCl4 solution of fullerenes

Boiling occurs in a solution of oxygen and fullerenes in CCl₄ upon optical pumping of C₆₀ upon the fast appearance of incandescent fullerenes in cold solvent. Upon single-photon absorption, a spherical zone of the critical state of CCl₄ is formed within 5 ns (with a diameter of 22–25 nm, P _cr ∼ 45 atm, and T _cr ∼ 556 K). This spherical zone (gas-bubble nucleus) expands to a diameter of ∼100–400 nm for 2–5 ns. If the external pressure (natural or artificial) is rapidly released, the bubble accelerates and emerges into a vacuum chamber within 0.7–25 μs (the length of the passage is 0.1–5 cm depending on the construction of the singlet oxygen generator). We note that singlet oxygen appears 50 ns after the absorption of a photon by fullerene (i.e., inside of the almost formed gas bubble that only begins to emerge from the liquid to a low-pressure gas region).