Press Releases
June 28, 2013
JAMSTEC
Yamagata University
Formation of nanoparticles by rubbing solid fullerene between fingertips
—Discovery of a unique solid property of fullerene (C60)—
1. Overview
While carrying out research on physical and chemical processes in the high-temperature high-pressure environments found in deep sea hydrothermal vents, Shigeru Deguchi at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC; President, Asahiko Taira) and his colleagues have discovered that nanoparticles with diameters of 20 nm or less can be generated simply by rubbing fullerene (C60) solids between fingertips. This new discovery shows that the energy required to comminute the C60 solid into nanoparticles is unprecedentedly smaller compared with other materials.
These findings were reported in the June 28 issue of Scientific Reports.
- Title:
- Non-engineered nanoparticles of C60
- Authors
- Shigeru Deguchi,1 Sada-atsu Mukai,1,2,3 Hide Sakaguchi,4 Yoshimune Nonomura5
- Affiliations
- 1Soft Matter and Extremophiles Research Team, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, 2ERATO Akiyoshi Bio-Nanotransporter Project, Japan Science and Technology Agency, 3Kyoto University, Graduate School of Engineering, 4Application Laboratory, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, 5Yamagata University Graduate School of Science and Engineering
- URL:
- <http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep02094>
References related to these findings
- 1)
- Shigeru Deguchi, Kaoru Tsujii, Supercritical water: A fascinating medium for soft matter. Soft Matter 3, 797-803 (2007).
<http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/b611584e> - 2)
- Shigeru Deguchi, Sada-atsu Mukai, Tomoko Yamazaki, Mikiko Tsudome, and Koki Horikoshi, Nanoparticles of fullerene C60 from engineering of antiquity. J. Phys. Chem. C 114, 849-856 (2010).
<http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jp909331n> - 3)
- Shigeru Deguchi, Sada-atsu Mukai, Mikiko Tsudome, and Koki Horikoshi, Facile generation of fullerene nanoparticles by hand-grinding. Adv. Mater. 18, 729-732 (2006).
<http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/adma.200502487> - 4)
- Richard D. Glover, John M. Miller, and James E. Hutchison, Generation of metal nanoparticles from silver and copper objects: Nanoparticle dynamics on surfaces and potential sources of nanoparticles in the environment. ACS Nano 5, 8950-8957 (2011).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/nn2031319
Figure 1: Fullerene (C60).
Figure 2: Experimental Procedure.
Figure 3: Electron microscope images of C60 solid powder (left, scale bar = 0.1 mm) and ground C60 (right, scale bar = 0.01 mm).
Figure 4: Magnified electron microscope images of ground C60. Scale bars indicate 2 ㎛ (left) and 200 nm (right).
Figure 5: Nanoparticles, 14 nm in diameter, which had formed in ground C60. The scale bar indicates 5 nm.
Figure 6: C60 crushed without the use of glass plates (left, brown substance adhered to a glove) and its electron microscope image (right, scale bar indicates 500 nm).
Figure 7: C60 adhered to the mouth of a reagent bottle (left) and its electron microscope image (right, scale bar indicates 500 nm).
Contacts:
Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC)
- (For the study)
-
Shigeru Deguchi, Team Leader
Soft Matter and Extremophiles Research Team, Extremobiosphere Research Program, Institute of Biogeosciences (BioGeos) - (For publication)
-
Kazushige Kikuchi, Director
Planning Department Press Office
Email: press@jamstec.go.jp