Synthesis and characterization of tri-component nanostructures of fullerene

Tri-component nanostructures of C 60 / m -xylene/thiophene were synthesized via a solvent-induced self-assembly method and characterized by SEM, TEM , XRD , FT-IR, and Raman. The shapes of nanostructures were dependent on the concentration of C 60 , the volume ratio of thiophene to m -xylene, and the volume ratio of mixture solvent to isopropanol. High-resolution TEM image and SAED pattern revealed that twisted nanorods of C 60 were single crystals and had an hcp structure. The EDX and FT-IR analysis confirmed the existence of thiophene. The results indicated that the twisted nanorods consisted of pristine C 60 , m -xylene, and thiophene molecules. In addition, thiophene molecules were assumed to partially replace m -xylene molecule in the C 60 / m -xylene lattice. Such tri-component nanorods of C 60 are ideal building blocks for fabricating novel nanodevices .