Shock-driven formation of covalently bound carbon nanoparticles from ion collisions with clusters of C-60 fullerenes

R Delaunay and M Gatchell and A Mika and A Domaracka and L Adoui and H Zettergren and H Cederquist and P Rousseau and BA Huber, CARBON, 129, 766-774 (2018).

DOI: 10.1016/j.carbon.2017.12.079

We show that the energetic processing of C-60 clusters by slow atomic projectiles leads to ultrafast (< ps) formation of large covalent carbon nanoparticles containing a few hundreds of atoms. The underlying mechanism is found to be due to impulse-driven collisions between the projectile and the nuclei of the molecules. Experimental findings are well reproduced by classical molecular dynamics simulations. The cross sections for molecular growth processes forming covalent systems which contain more than 60 carbon atoms are about 5.10(-14) cm(2) representing more than 70% of the geometrical cross sections. This demonstrates the high efficiency of the underlying processes. The formed carbon nanoparticles contain both aromatic and aliphatic structures which have also been considered as dust components in space. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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