Sublimation of Li@C60
Abstract
Experiments that probe the fundamental properties of endohedral fullerenes often require the preparation of molecular beams or thin films of the neutral molecules. It is challenging to cleanly sublime this class of molecules without producing some thermal degradation. We report combined gas phase and scanning tunnelling microscopy studies that probe the thermal decay of commercial [Li+C60]PF6- in a quartz ampoule and provide treatment conditions that will allow the sublimation of intact, neutral Li@C60 accompanied by a well-characterised component of neutral C60. The decay of the material at appropriate temperatures can be modelled with the assumption of a second order decay process in the oven yielding Arrhenius parameters that can predict the ratio of Li@C60 to C60 in the sublimed material.
Citation
Campbell , E E B , Chandler , H J & Schaub , R 2020 , ' Sublimation of Li@C 60 ' , The European Physical Journal D - Atomic, Molecular, Optical and Plasma Physics , vol. 74 , 122 . https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2020-10146-0
Publication
The European Physical Journal D - Atomic, Molecular, Optical and Plasma Physics
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1434-6060Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © The Author(s) 2020. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Description
R.S. acknowledges financial support from the Scottish Funding Council thorugh SRD-Grant (HR07003) and H.J.C. from an EPSRC DTG studentship (EP/M508214/1).Collections
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