Doping of fullerite with molecular oxygen at low temperature and pressure

Two methods are described for doping of fullerite C₆₀ with molecular oxygen at a pressure of ∼104 Pa and at temperature 20–30 °C. It was found by mass spectrometry using oxygen ¹⁸O as dopant that a portion of molecular oxygen absorbed by the pre-decontaminated fullerite (first method) is removed as CO and CO₂ at the heating temperature ≤200 °C. Doping during fullerite precipitation from the liquid phase (second method) makes it possible to prepare samples with the oxygen content ≥1.2 at.%. The fullerite doped with oxygen to this level is diamagnetic. The paramagnetic properties of an O₂ molecule disappear when O₂ is incorporated into the fullerene lattice. This is interpreted on the basis of quantum chemical calculations as a sequence of equilibrium formation of the adduct C₆₀O₂. Calculations showed that the subsequent chemical transformation of C₆₀O₂ resulting in the O-O bond cleavage is energetically favorable, enabling prerequisites for the formation of products of incomplete (CO) and deep (CO₂) oxidation of fullerene under mild conditions. Published in Russian in Izvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 4, pp. 662–671, April, 2006