Testing the resistance of fullerenes to chemothermal oxidation used to isolate soots from environmental samples

Abstract We tested the resistance of five different fullerenes (C 60 , C 70 , C 76/78 mix, and C 84 ) to chemothermal oxidation at 375 °C (CTO-375), a method that has been used and tested for quantifying black carbon (BC) and CNTs in soils and sediments. C 60 survived CTO-375 the most (50%), while C 70 was the fullerene with the lowest survival rate ( 60 to soil and sediment reference materials yielded recoveries between 18 and 36%. Although lower than recoveries previously observed for soot and CNTs, these results demonstrate the capability of CTO-375 to partially isolate C 60 from solid environmental matrices. Standard additions of C 70 , C 76/78 , and C 84 yielded slightly higher survival rates when added to soil and sediment than in their pure form. These results indicate that the mineral matrices of these samples probably had a catalytic effect towards C 60 and a protective effect towards C 70 , C 76/78 , and C 84 during CTO-375.