Form of sulfur impurity in neutron irradiated commercial C60

摘要

C60 under neutron irradiation in a nuclear reactor was found to contain an unexpectedly high amount of sulfur. The samples were investigated using optical, electron microscopic and X-ray powder diffraction analysis. The transmission electron microscopy, high resolution transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy morphology studies revealed that during the neutron irradiation the original fine powder-form material underwent a morphological transition forming a mixture of pearl like spherical grains and a smaller portion of well developed elongated prismatic crystals.