ABNORMAL GROWTH OF BUCKYTUBULES AND BUCKYONIONS DURING SYNTHESIS OF BORON HETEROFULLERENES

Some accompanying effects while preparing boron heterofullerenes by arcing the boron impregnated graphite rod using the DC arc discharge heating apparatus were presented. The eletroconductivity measurements showed that the electrical conductivity of boron heterofullerene soot is one magnitude larger than that of pure fullerene soot. TEM observation revealed that much more buckytubules and buckyonions are found in the boron heterofullerenes soot, while abnormally just some pearl like buckyonions in the cathode deposits are found.The formation of buckytubules and buckyonions in the gas phase may be related to the catalysis of boron. The experimental results also indicated that buckytubules and buckyonions as well as their productivity are influenced by helium pressure, boron content in the anode and activation of boron/graphite composite rod. To our knowledge, this is the first non-metallic catalyst for synthesizing buckytubules only in the soot. It is also suggested that this may be a method for preparing pure buckyounions.