Photo-Oxidation of Hydrogenated Fullerene (Fullerane) in Water

Hydrogenated fullerenes (termed fulleranes) have been demonstrated to be key material components in advanced hydrogen storage and lithium battery technologies, among other applications; however, their potential environmental reactivity has not been evaluated to date. Here, for the first time, photoinduced oxidation and corresponding dissolution of solid fulleranes (C60Hx, where x = 39.9–45.5) into water are demonstrated to occur rapidly under attenuated sunlight, UV-A irradiation, and even dark conditions, albeit more slowly as long as oxygen is present. Through a series of batch experiments, reaction kinetics demonstrate that both light and oxygen play critical roles in the solvation process as reaction rates were a function of both irradiation intensity and wavelength along with dissolved oxygen concentration. Resulting products, which were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy, total organic carbon analysis, and dyna...