Potential methods for production of doped fullerenes

The task is to produce macroscopic amounts of fullerenes containing cesium or potassium. Laser vaporization of microscopic amounts of mechanical mixtures of graphite and chemical compounds containing K and Cs results in measurable amount of fullerenes like K@C{sub 60} and Cs@C{sub 60}. The problem with extending these methods to a scale that gives macroscopic amounts of fullerenes is that pre-heated target causes the volatile K and Cs compounds to evaporate whereas omitting the pre-heating reduces the yield of fullerenes. A possible way to avoid this problem could be to trap cesium or potassium atoms inside soot particles or gigantic fullerenes. Another way could be to introduce a partial pressure of the dopants in the tube furnace in which the fullerene production takes place.