Controlling the incorporation and release of C60 in nanometer-scale hollow spaces inside single-wall carbon nanohorns

Ryota Yuge; Masako Yudasaka; Jin Miyawaki; Yoshimi Kubo; Toshinari Ichihashi; Hideto Imai; Eiichi Nakamura; Hiroyuki Isobe; Hideki Yorimitsu; Sumio Iijima

doi:10.1021/jp052814d

Controlling the incorporation and release of C60 in nanometer-scale hollow spaces inside single-wall carbon nanohorns

J Phys Chem B. 2005 Sep 29;109(38):17861-7. doi: 10.1021/jp052814d.

Authors

Ryota Yuge¹, Masako Yudasaka, Jin Miyawaki, Yoshimi Kubo, Toshinari Ichihashi, Hideto Imai, Eiichi Nakamura, Hiroyuki Isobe, Hideki Yorimitsu, Sumio Iijima

Affiliation

¹ Fundamental and Environmental Research Laboratories, NEC Corporation, 34 Miyukigaoka, Tsukuba 305-8501, Japan. ryuge@frl.cl.nec.co.jp

PMID: 16853291
DOI: 10.1021/jp052814d

Abstract

We succeeded in large-scale preparation of single-wall carbon nanohorns (SWNH) encapsulating C60 molecules in a liquid phase at room temperature using a "nano-precipitation" method, that is, complete evaporation of the toluene from a C60-SWNH-toluene mixture. The C60 molecules were found to occupy 6-36% of the hollow space inside the SWNH, depending on the initial quantity of C60. We showed that the C60 in C60@SWNHox was quickly released in toluene, and the release rate decreased by adding ethanol to toluene. Numerical analysis of the release profiles indicated that there were fast and slow release processes. We consider that the incorporation quantity and the release rate of C60 were controllable in/from SWNHs because SWNHs have large diameters, 2-5 nm.