METHOD OF PREPARING FULLERENES Russian patent published in 2002 - IPC

FIELD: chemical industry, more particularly manufacture of new materials. SUBSTANCE: carbon- containing material, e. g. graphite, is fed into reaction chamber. Sublimation of material is carried out at (3-10)•10^3°C in plasma or electric discharge at voltage of 15-25 kv and discharge current of 100-350 A. Sublimated products are withdrawn during graphite-fullerene transition phase. To separate reaction products around reaction zone, several casings with spherical walls made by lemmiscate techniques, casing walls are provided with perforations diameter of which diminishing from first to last one, casing walls have potential with charge sign opposite to charge sign of fullerene particles. Potential value is increased successively from to proportionally to increased weight of fullerene within electric field intensity of 0.005-0.05 A/square dm and magnetic field induction of 0.01-0.1 Tl. This makes it possible to separate fullerenes according to fractions and to carry out process continuously. Power consumption is reduced by more than 30%. Yield of fullerenes is 18-23 wt%. EFFECT: more efficient preparation method. 2 cl