Pressure-induced polycondensation of C60 fullerene.

Modifications of carbon which are formed from C60 fullerite at pressures up to 10.0 GPa and temperatures up to 1900 K are studied by x-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, and atomic force microscopy methods. The pressures p and temperatures T at which atomic, molecular, and polymolecular structures form under conditions of quasihydrostatic compression are determined. It is shown that, together with polymerization, another type of chemical interaction of the molecules, called polycondensation, which leads to the formation of polymolecular structures with a shortest intermolecular distance of 0.65 nm, is possible in the system. Three-dimensional polycondensation of C60 fullerene is explained by the special properties of the new carbon states. © 1996 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]