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Incorporation of Pure Fullerene into Organoclays: Towards C 60 ‐Pillared Clay Structures
Author(s) -
Tsoufis Theodoros,
Georgakilas Vasileios,
Ke Xiaoxing,
Van Tendeloo Gustaaf,
Rudolf Petra,
Gournis Dimitrios
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
chemistry – a european journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.687
H-Index - 242
eISSN - 1521-3765
pISSN - 0947-6539
DOI - 10.1002/chem.201300164
Subject(s) - fullerene , intercalation (chemistry) , materials science , chemical engineering , aluminosilicate , adsorption , molecule , ion exchange , clay minerals , thermal treatment , desorption , inorganic chemistry , chemistry , ion , organic chemistry , mineralogy , composite material , engineering , catalysis
Abstract In this work, we demonstrate the successful incorporation of pure fullerene from solution into two‐dimensional layered aluminosilicate minerals. Pure fullerenes are insoluble in water and neutral in terms of charge, hence they cannot be introduced into the clay galleries by ion exchange or intercalation from water solution. To overcome this bottleneck, we organically modified the clay with quaternary amines by using well‐established reactions in clay science in order to expand the interlayer space and render the galleries organophilic. During the reaction with the fullerene solution, the organic solvent could enter into the clay galleries, thus transferring along the fullerene molecules. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the surfactant molecules, can be selectively removed by either simple ion‐exchange reaction (e.g., interaction with Al(NO 3 ) 3 solution to replace the surfactant molecules with Al 3+ ions) or thermal treatment (heating at 350 °C) to obtain novel fullerene‐pillared clay structures exhibiting enhanced surface area. The synthesized hybrid materials were characterized in detail by a combination of experimental techniques including powder X‐ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, X‐ray photoemission, and UV/Vis spectroscopy as well as thermal analysis and nitrogen adsorption–desorption measurements. The reported fullerene‐pillared clay structures constitute a new hybrid system with very promising potential for the use in areas such as gas storage and/or gas separation due to their high surface area.