Alteration of nC60 in the presence of environmentally relevant carboxylates

C(60) forms colloidally stable nanoscale particles (nC(60)) when mixed with water for extended periods. Past studies have shown that macromolecules such as natural organic matter (NOM) and proteins accelerate nC(60) formation and stabilize the resulting nanoparticles. To better elucidate the mechanisms underlying this behavior, nC(60) was produced via extended mixing in the presence of sodium citrate and other carboxylates. Carboxyl groups are a predominant functional group in many environmentally relevant macromolecules, thus studies examining carboxyl-C(60) interactions are merited. nC(60) produced in the presence of citrate (cit/nC(60)) and other carboxylates differs from nC(60) produced in water alone (aq/nC(60)), exhibiting enhanced negative surface charge, smaller particle size, and different spectroscopic characteristics. Importantly, the simultaneous detection of irregular nC(60) nanoparticles and small, regularly shaped nC(60) suggests that mixing-mediated "top-down" and carboxyl group-mediated "bottom-up" processes occur concurrently when nC(60) is produced in the presence of carboxylates and, by extension, in the presence of carboxylate-containing macromolecules. The "bottom-up" process is expected to involve molecular C(60) or small clusters of C(60) molecules as an important intermediate.