DOPING BUCKY - FORMATION AND PROPERTIES OF BORON-DOPED BUCKMINSTERFULLERENE

Laser vaporization of a graphite pellet containing boron nitride powder was found to produce fullernes in which one or more atoms of the hollow carbon cage was replaced by a boron atom. The clusters were probed as isolated positive and negative ions by ion cyclotron resonance techniques. The boron-doped carbon clusters were demonstrated to be fullerenes by the absence of odd-numbered clusters, and relative prominence of the clusters with 50, 60, and 70 atoms, and the fact that they fragment by the successive loss of C2, resulting in a shrinking of the cage. The boron-doped clusters were found to act as Lewis acids, readily chemisorbing one ammonia molecule per surface boron atom.