Creation of metal-containing carbon onions via self-assembly in metallocene/benzene solution irradiated with an ultraviolet laser

Abstract

We irradiate sub- and super-critical benzene, in which metallocene such as ferrocene or cobaltocene is dissolved, with a UV laser of 266 nm wavelength, and show that benzene and metallocenes are dissociated and iron- and cobalt-containing carbon onions (Fe@C and Co@C) are created. The operational temperature of the present method is much lower than that of conventional ones for the growth of nanomaterials and therefore coagulation among metal-containing carbon onions is avoided. The average diameters of the core iron and cobalt nanoparticles are, respectively, 7.5 and 7.2 nm, whereas the thickness of the layers of carbon onions surrounding the core metal particles is 3.2 nm in both Fe @ C and Co @ C cases. The metal-containing carbon onions show superparamagnetic characteristics. © 2012 Vietnam Academy of Science & Technology.