Manipulating the Structural Transformation of Fullerene Microtubes to Fullerene Microhorns Having Microscopic Recognition Properties.

Tang, Qin; Maji, Subrata; Jiang, Bohong; Sun, Jiao; Zhao, Wenli; Hill, Jonathan P; Ariga, Katsuhiko; Fuchs, Harald et al. · ACS Nano · 2019

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

We report the production of fullerene microtubes (FMTs), having solid cores bisecting their tubular cavities, from solutions of mixtures of fullerene C<sub>60</sub> and C<sub>70</sub> and have demonstrated the structural transformation of FMTs to fullerene microhorns (FMHs) upon their exposure to alcohol/mesitylene mixtures at 25 °C. The conically shaped microhorns have hollow interiors and exhibit preferential recognition of silica particles over fullerene C<sub>70</sub>, polystyrene (PS) latex, PS hydroxylate, or PS carboxylate particles of similar dimensions due to strong electrostatic interactions between negatively charged FMHs and positively charged silica particles.