Project Title:

Fullerene Synthesis in Microgravity to Establish Mechanism of Formation

Materials and Electrochemical Research (MER) Corporation
7960 S. Kolb Road
Tucson, AZ 85706

93-1  15.01   1980    __      AMOUNT REQUESTED $70,000

Fullerene Synthesis in Microgravity to Establish Mechanism of Formation

Abstract:

Fullerenes have become the most investigated/publicized scientific
subject ever. In spite of this intense and the enormous commercial
potential, the mechanism to the synthesis of the various fullerene
structures of buckyballs, buckytubes and encapsulation within the
cage structures has not been defined which is a major reason the
cost of fullerenes remain about 5-160 times the cost of gold
Conducting synthesis experiments in microgravity with in-situ
analysis along with post analysis, provides a potential opportunity
to establish a model for the mechanism of buckyball, buckytubes and
encapsulation formation. Demonstrating the mechanism for the
synthesis of the fullerene structures and encapsulation provides a
basis for the large scale economic production in earth environment
as well as a basis for future commercial synthesis in space using
solar power.

Fullerenes have enormous commercial potential in the scientific
fields including medicine, chemistry, electronics, materials
science, optics, physics, etc in applications such as batteries,
hydrogen storage, precursors to diamond, non-linear optics,
polymers and a variety of chemical building blocks.

Fullerene, buckyball, buckytubes, synthesis, mechanism,
encapsulation