Different aspects of electrochemical investigations of carbon soot containing endohedral fullerenes and C60 molecules in neutral and alkaline electrolytes

Abstract

In this paper we report the results of our investigation of different electrochemical activities of pure carbon dust, pure metals (Cu and Zn), pure fullerence C60 (99.95% purity), different mixtures of these materials, and carbon soot after the MER Corp. procedure of producing endohedral ZnΓ60 and CuΓ60 metallofullerenes. The electrochemical behaviour of these materials was found to differ. The results indicate that electrochemistry can help in the identification of some fullerenes, as well as in the purification of CuΓ60. A catalytic influence of CuΓ60 on cephalosporin - cefetamet reduction on Pt electrode was also found. Holding the potential at -1.4 V on the gold electrode, we activated C60 in the aqueous electrolyte.