Fullerenes in Nature
Fullerenes are created from soot and pollution naturally every time there is a lightening bolt somewhere on earth, so it’s not unusual to find it ubiquitously in nature. It’s amazing they can measure C60 in femtogram levels or parts-per-quadrillion
Walter Derzko
Here are two examples
Anal Bioanal Chem. 2014 Nov 18.
Nanoparticle tracking analysis characterisation and parts-per-quadrillion determination of fullerenes in river samples from Barcelona catchment area.
Sanchís J1, Bosch-Orea C, Farré M, Barceló D.
Author information
• 1Water and Soil Quality Research Group, Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA-CSIC), C/JordiGirona, 18-26, 08911, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
Abstract
In the present work, the analysis of seven fullerenes (C60 and C70 fullerenes and five functionalised fullerenes) has been performed in river samples collected in the vicinities of Barcelona (Catalonia, NE of Spain). The results of 48 samples (25 river waters, 12 river sediments and 11 wastewater effluents) are presented. Extracts of river water, river sediments and wastewater effluents were analysed by liquid chromatography (LC), using a pyrenylpropyl group bonded silica based column, coupled to a high-resolution mass spectrometer (HRMS), using a dual ion source, atmospheric pressure photoionisation/atmospheric pressure chemical ionisation source (APPI/APCI). The novel methodology presents good chromatographic separation, excellent selectivity and instrumental limits of quantification (ILOQ) in the femtogram order. Method limits of quantification (MLOQ) ranged from 2.9 to 17 pg/l and from 3.2 to 31 pg/l in surface waters and wastewaters, respectively. In wastewater effluents, the sums of C60 and C70 ranged from 0.5 to 9.3 ng/l. In surface waters, C60 fullerene was the most ubiquitous compound, being detected in 100 % of the samples in concentrations from 31 pg/l to 4.5 ng/l, while C70 concentrations ranged from less than the method limits of detection (MLOD) to 1.5 ng/l. The presence of fullerenes in both the large particulate (diameter Ø > 450 nm) and the colloidal (Ø < 450 nm) fractions of surface waters should be noticed. In sediments, the concentrations of fullerenes were between the MLOD and 34.4 pg/g. In addition, nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA) was used for the characterisation of water samples in terms of nanoparticle number concentration and size distribution. As far as our knowledge is concerned, this is the first time that NTA has been used for the characterisation of complex river waters with an environmental focus.
PMID:
25404164
[PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/25404164
and an older 2007 story, that never realised its potential
#925 PRODUCTION OF FULLERENES FROM MOLASSES
Kaman Singh and Ram Bharose, University of Lucknow, Lucknow, India
On account of their diverse applications, fullerenes will be required in large quantities. Such quantities so far have been produced by heating or arching of graphite. However, graphite is expensive, costing $ 1,000-5,000 per tonne. Pang et al. (1991) have prepared gram quantities of fullerenes from coal derived coke, but the coke costs about $ 500 per tonne. Commercial preparation of fullerenes from relatively cheap and abundant sources, hence, is desirable. Fullerenes were discovered from commercially available material; molasses; a byproduct of sugar industry and patent filed. Hence, a new term “MOLASSESENES” has been coined by the authors to acknowledge the potential importance of the molasses in the commercial production of fullerenes with tremendous potentialities across the fields from high tech to nanotech, electronics to catalysts and from defence to medicine. Furthermore, production of fullerene from molasses would be more than 90 times cheaper than produced from graphite. The current price of C60 is very roughly the price of gold, for C70, it is about an order of magnitude larger, and that of higher fullerenes very much higher. With the present cost of molasses about $ 1-2 per tonne, its use as an industrial source of fullerenes would greatly improve the economics of production. Hence, a waste molasses may be a boon for sugar industry. Thus, it could be major breakthrough for the sugar industry in the commercial production of fullerenes
http://sucrose.com/sit/2007.html#925