Nanostructuring of Highly Ordered C60 Films by Charge Transfer

Highly ordered surfaces of C60 films are formed on highly ordered pyrolytic graphite (see Figure for a scanning tunneling microscopy image). Electrochemical reduction of these films leads to the first reported electrochemical nanostructuring of fullerene films, where nanometer-sized clusters of potassium fullerides are formed in fullerene layers at the electrode surface. The resulting stable structures cannot be destroyed by chemical reactions.