Abstract:
This is a proposal to investigate electrochemical charge-transfer in fullerenes C60 C70 and endohedral fullerenes either in the form of organized films on supports or in supramolecular complexes inside carbon nanotubes ("fullerene peapods"). The project includes also own synthesis and characterization (Vis-NIR, Raman, SEM, XRD, SPM, ESCA) of the mentioned materials from commerical fullerenes and nanotubes. Besides usual electrochemical techniques, electrochemical impedance and quartz microbalance will be employed. Charge-transfer reactions will serve for tuning and monitoring of electronic structure with the aim of spectroelectrochemical methods (Vis-NIR, Raman) for structural characterization and analysis. In peapods, fundamental questions about the interaction of fullerene with the nanotube-double-layer will be addressed. The charge transfer reactions will be utilized for self-organization of fullerene layers and for templating of metal clusters. Morphological analysis will be carried out by SPM.