Controllable Preparation of Submicrometer Single-Crystal C60 Rods and Tubes Trough Concentration Depletion at the Surfaces of Seeds

Abstract

Single-crystal submicrometer rods and tubes of C60 with highly uniform size and shape were produced from a solvent-induced and surfactant assisted self-assembly technique. The length and length-to-width ratio of both rods and tubes were tunable by controlling the concentration of C60 in the stock solution. The transformation from rod to tube was achieved by simply varying the volume ratio of two solvents. Fourier-transform infrared and Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy revealed the detailed structures of the rods and tubes. We proposed a concentration profile based growth model to describe the self-assembly process of C60 subunits. This study may contribute to better understanding of chemistry of fullerenes in solutions and extend the surfactant-assisted self-organization of inorganic system to fullerene system.