Studies of the Formation of Carbon Clusters

Experimental and theoretical studies focusing on the formation of carbon clusters are described. In the experiment on discharge in liquid chloroform, a series of perchlorinated fragments of C₆₀ was synthesized and a scarce amount of C₆₀ was detected. In the laser vaporization experiments, it was found that the production of C ₆₀ ⁺ and other fullerene ions could be promoted by doping chlorine-containing compounds into carbon targets. Chlorine atoms were found to play key roles of not only tying up the dangling bonds of the polycyclic carbon clusters, but also catalyzing the formation of fullerenes. The results showed that C₆₀ and other fullerenes are formed from growth of small carbon species and supported the Pentagon Road scheme of the fullerene formation mechanism. On the other hand, ab initio calculations were carried out on formation reactions of C₆₀ from its various perchlorinated fragments, C_60–2mCl₁₀. The monotonically decreasing calculated energies of reactions with growing size of the fragments confirm that the formation reaction is energetically favorable.