Self-assembled fullerene crystals as excellent aromatic vapor sensors

Abstract

Here we report the aromatic vapor sensing performance of bitter melon shaped nanoporous fullerene C 60 crystals that are self-assembled at a liquid-liquid interface between isopropyl alcohol and C 60 solution in dodecylbenzene at 25 ◦ C. Average length and center diameter of the crystals were ca. 10 µm and ~2 µm, respectively. Powder X-ray diffraction pattern (pXRD) confirmed a face-centered cubic (fcc) structure with cell dimension ca. a = 1.4272 nm, and V = 2.907 nm 3 , which is similar to that of the pristine fullerene C 60 . Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) confirmed the presence of a nanoporous structure. Quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) results showed that the bitter melon shaped nanoporous C 60 performs as an excellent sensing system, particularly for aromatic vapors, due to their easy diffusion through the porous architecture and strong π–π interactions with the sp 2 -carbon.