Kinetic study of an electron-beam irradiated C60 film using in situ infrared spectroscopy

Electron-beam induced reaction between adjacent C-60 molecules in its film has been investigated using in situ Fourier-transform (FT) infrared spectroscopy and ex situ laser-desorption (LD) FT mass spectrometer. The results of FT-IR and LD FT-MS indicate that coalesced C-120 species were formed as a main product in the EB irradiated C-60 film. Since the product for the latter case was identified to be a C-120 bucky peanut using an FT mass spectrometer and FT-IR, the present results suggest that EB irradiation induces a coalescence between adjacent C-60 molecules, leading to the formation of a new-form of carbon materials.