Morphological modifications of C60 crystal rods under hydrothermal conditions* *Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11804384, 51802343, and 51772326), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China (Grant No. 3122018L006), the Scientific Research Project of Tianjin Education Commission (Grant No. 2019ZD19), the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Civil Aviation Administration

Abstract

We observed morphological modification of rod-shaped C60 solvate crystals using a facile hydrothermal method. The initial C60 rods were changed from smooth rods to rough rods, porous rods or pieces under different hydrothermal conditions. During the hydrothermal treatment, the initial samples underwent a decomposition-recrystallization process, which can be tuned by the content of alcohol in the hydrothermal solution, thereby leading to modification of the morphological properties of the initial C60 rods. In addition, the rough and porous C60 rods prepared in our work exhibit excellent photoluminescence intensities that are approximately 7 and 3 times higher than those of pure C60 powders, respectively. Our results suggest that the hydrothermal method is a potential route for fabricating fullerene materials with controllable morphologies and novel functions.