An improved method for the purification of fullerene from fullerene soot with activated carbon, celite, and silica gel stationary phases

摘要

Extracting pure fullerene (C60) from fullerene soot was accomplished in two steps. In the first step, extraction was carried out using a Soxhlet extractor. Different solvents, such as toluene, were used in this method. In this process, light and heavy fullerenes were separated from impurities such as soot and other compounds. The applied fullerene soot was produced using an electric arc method, and the obtained purity was close to 7%. In the next step, fullerene C60 can be separated from other fullerenes (particularly C70) by column chromatography. The stationary phase in the chromatography column contained a mixture of activated carbon, silica gel, and celite, and in order to achieve a high efficiency for separation, the column was filled with a combination of these compounds. Organic solvents such as chlorobenzene and 1,2-dichlorobenzene were used as the mobile phase. Several experiments were designed and conducted to obtain optimal conditions, and consequently, the fullerene C60 was purified with proper efficiency. In this method, parameters including efficiency, low cost, and simplicity are of great importance in the aim of obtaining an optimized method. As a result, a suitable method with low cost and high efficiency was used in this research.