| This dissertation consists of two major research topics: laboratory production of fullerene C60 via carbon vaporization, and studies of fullerene intercalation compounds using liquid ammonia or primary amines as solvents.; Electric discharge between two graphite rods generates carbon vapor in a reduced helium atmosphere, and the newly discovered novel molecule, fullerene C60, is formed during the condensation of the carbon vapor. Isolation of C60 is performed using a flash chromatography column with alumina as a stationary phase and hexane as the mobile phase. The purity of C 60 thus synthesized is higher than 99%, as characterized by mass spectrometry.; A novel synthetic approach to intercalation of alkali metals in C 60 has been developed using liquid ammonia as a solvent. The synthetic product, A3C60 (A = K, Rb) gives a single superconducting phase in high purity, which is comparable to that obtained from the conventional vapor transport technique. The study of molecular dynamics by solid state NMR indicates the presence of a higher degree of structural defects in samples synthesized by the liquid ammonia method.; Primary amines, such as propylamine and butylamine, have also been employed as a solvent for synthesis of superconducting Rb3C60. The experiment illustrates the benefit of the modification of physical properties of C60 by functionalizing C60 molecules prior to intercalation synthesis. |
