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Optical heating and rapid transformation of functionalized fullerenes

Nature Nanotechnology volume 5, pages 330–334 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

Irradiating single-walled carbon nanotubes can lead to heat generation or ignition1. These processes could be used in medical2,3 and industrial applications4, but the poor solvent compatibility and high aspect ratios of nanotubes have led to concerns about safety5,6. Here, we show that certain functionalized fullerenes, including polyhydroxy fullerenes (which are known to be environmentally safe7,8 and to have therapeutic properties9,10,11) are heated or ignited by exposure to low-intensity (<102 W cm−2) continuous-wave laser irradiation. We also show that polyhydroxy fullerenes and other functionalized fullerenes can be transformed into single-walled nanotubes, multiwalled nanotubes and carbon onions without the presence of a catalyst by exposure to low-intensity laser irradiation in an oxygen-free environment. To demonstrate the potential usefulness of these processes in applications, we disrupted animal cells dosed with polyhydroxy fullerenes by exposing them to a near-infrared laser for a few seconds, and also ignited an explosive charge in contact with a particle of carboxy fullerenes.

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Figure 1: Different functionalized fullerenes react to laser irradiation in different ways.
Figure 2: Visible light emission from functionalized fullerenes irradiated with a 785-nm laser.
Figure 3: TEM of MWNTs, carbon onions and SWNTs formed by irradiation of a PHF film with a 785-nm laser under an argon atmosphere.
Figure 4: Proposed mechanism for laser-induced transformation of functionalized fullerenes.
Figure 5: Photothermal ablation of cancer cells dosed with PHF-coated silica nanoparticles.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the financial support of the Particle Engineering Research Center (PERC) at the University of Florida. TEM and XPS were carried out at the Major Analytical Instrumentation Center by K. Siebein and E. Lambers, respectively. Technical assistance in experimentation was provided by G. Schieffele and G. Brubaker. Absorbance and fluorescence measurements were carried out at the UF Interdisciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research. The Gaussian simulation was carried out at the UF High Performance Computing Center. The PHF was synthesized at the UF Water Reclamation and Reuse Laboratory.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Particle Engineering Research Center, University of Florida, Gainesville, 32611, Florida, USA

    Vijay Krishna, Nathanael Stevens, Ben Koopman & Brij Moudgil

  2. Department of Environmental Engineering Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, 32611, Florida, USA

    Ben Koopman

  3. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, 32611, Florida, USA

    Brij Moudgil

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  1. Vijay Krishna
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Contributions

V.K., in collaboration with B.K. and B.M., conceived, designed and performed the experiments and analysed the data, with additional help from N.S. for explosion initiation experiments. All authors co-wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Vijay Krishna.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Krishna, V., Stevens, N., Koopman, B. et al. Optical heating and rapid transformation of functionalized fullerenes. Nature Nanotech 5, 330–334 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2010.35

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