Ajayan Vinu, University of South Australia, Adelaide, and University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia, and colleagues have designed and synthesized highly crystalline and ordered mesoporous fullerene C₆₀ materials with high specific surface and large pore volume. The team’s aim was to enhance the materials’ physical and electronic properties, including surface area and electronic conductivity, for energy storage and conversion applications.

The researchers used a templating approach (pictured) in which highly ordered porous inorganic materials are used as templates. A large amount of C₆₀ can be encapsulated in the mesopores of the template. Oligomerization occurs by cross-linking of the C₆₀ molecules. Highly crystalline walls are formed at temperatures of 900 °C. The template is removed using HF.

The resultant mesoporous C₆₀ products have an ordered porosity. The products have a rod-shaped morphology with a specific surface area of 680 m²/g. The material has a high supercapacitive performance and a high selectivity for H₂O₂ production and methanol tolerance for fuel cells. The synthetic strategy could be extended for the fabrication of a new series of porous fullerenes.

• Highly Crystalline Mesoporous C₆₀ with Ordered Pores: A Class of Nanomaterials for Energy Applications,
  Mercy R. Benzigar, Stalin Joseph, Hamid Ilbeygi, Dae-Hwan Park, Sujoy Sarkar, Goutam Chandra, Siva Umapathy, Sampath Srinivasan, Siddulu Naidu Talapaneni, Ajayan Vinu,
  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2017.
  https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201710888