Self-Assembled Fullerene Crystals as Excellent Aromatic Vapor Sensors
Natsumi Furuuchi,
Rekha Goswami Shrestha,
Yuji Yamashita,
Tetsuji Hirao,
Katsuhiko Ariga,
Lok Kumar Shrestha
Affiliations
Natsumi Furuuchi
Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Science, Chiba Institute of Science, 15-8 Shiomi-cho, Choshi-shi, Chiba 288-0025, Japan
Rekha Goswami Shrestha
International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (WPI-MANA), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), 1-1 Namiki, Ibaraki Tsukuba 305-0044, Japan
Yuji Yamashita
Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Science, Chiba Institute of Science, 15-8 Shiomi-cho, Choshi-shi, Chiba 288-0025, Japan
Tetsuji Hirao
Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Science, Chiba Institute of Science, 15-8 Shiomi-cho, Choshi-shi, Chiba 288-0025, Japan
Katsuhiko Ariga
International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (WPI-MANA), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), 1-1 Namiki, Ibaraki Tsukuba 305-0044, Japan
Lok Kumar Shrestha
International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (WPI-MANA), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), 1-1 Namiki, Ibaraki Tsukuba 305-0044, Japan
Here we report the aromatic vapor sensing performance of bitter melon shaped nanoporous fullerene C60 crystals that are self-assembled at a liquid-liquid interface between isopropyl alcohol and C60 solution in dodecylbenzene at 25 °C. Average length and center diameter of the crystals were ca. 10 μm and ~2 μm, respectively. Powder X-ray diffraction pattern (pXRD) confirmed a face-centered cubic (fcc) structure with cell dimension ca. a = 1.4272 nm, and V = 2.907 nm3, which is similar to that of the pristine fullerene C60. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) confirmed the presence of a nanoporous structure. Quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) results showed that the bitter melon shaped nanoporous C60 performs as an excellent sensing system, particularly for aromatic vapors, due to their easy diffusion through the porous architecture and strong π–π interactions with the sp2-carbon.
