Solid State Fluorination of Fullerens with Distillation of the Volatile Products

A.Ya. Borshchevsky, O.V. Boltalina, L.N. Sidorov

"Fullerenes. Recent advances in the chemistry and physics of fullerenes and related materials", edited by Prashant V. Kamat, Dirk M. Guldi and Karl M.Kadish, published by: the Electrochemical Society, Inc. 10 South Main Street, Pennington, New Jersey, v.7, p. 540-550, (1999).

ABSTRACT. A brief survey of the experimental facts, associated with the recently developed method of the preparation of individual fluorofullerenes is presented. The method is based on the solid-state reactions of fullerite with transition metal fluorides with the simultaneous distillation of the volatile products. Thermodynamic and kinetic analyses of the process resulted in the conclusion on the importance of consideration of the elementary act, that is detachment of fluorine atoms from the metal fluoride surface and consecutive F attachment to the C₆₀ molecules. To work out a criterion for the selection of the fluorinating agent for the synthesis of specific fluorofullerenes, an approach, analogous to the BAP model, is put forward. It involves a near-linear correlation between activation energy and enthalpy for the series of similar elementary reactions.

Laboratory of Thermochemistry