Fullerene Production in a Graphite Tubular Reactor

Effects of operational parameters on the production yield of fullerenes have been detailed by many researchers and up to 20% fullerene yields were attained at optimized pressure, current, and electrode gap. Many of the tests were carried out under static helium pressure and no reference was made to helium flow during the arcing process. It is, however, known that helium flow enhances the fullerene yield. In this study, a tubular graphite reactor was placed into a stainless steel chamber and the arc was generated inside the tubular reactor. Fresh helium was fed at one end of the tubular reactor and vacuum was applied to the other end. Changing the helium flow rate affected the residence time of the particles in the reactive zone. Fullerene yields were obtained to be as high as 32%, which is much above the literature stated values.