Issue 9, 2016

Fullerenes in asphaltenes and other carbonaceous materials: natural constituents or laser artifacts

Abstract

The presence of fullerenes as natural constituents of carbonaceous materials or their formation as laser artifacts during laser desorption ionization (LDI) mass spectrometry (MS) analysis is reinvestigated and reviewed. The results using asphaltene samples with varying composition as well as standard polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and fullerene samples as models have demonstrated that indeed Cn ring fullerenes are not natural constituents but they are formed as common and often as predominant artifacts upon laser radiation, and a series of incorrect assignments based on LDI-MS data of several carbonaceous materials seems unfortunately to have been made. When the present results are evaluated also in the light of the vast literature on LDI-MS of carbonaceous materials, the formation of fullerene artifacts seems particularly common for LDI-MS analysis of asphaltenes and other carbonaceous samples with considerably high levels of PAH and varies according to the type of laser used, and the intensity of the laser beam.

Graphical abstract: Fullerenes in asphaltenes and other carbonaceous materials: natural constituents or laser artifacts

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
11 Nov 2015
Accepted
06 Jan 2016
First published
07 Jan 2016

Analyst, 2016,141, 2767-2773

Author version available

Fullerenes in asphaltenes and other carbonaceous materials: natural constituents or laser artifacts

V. G. Santos, M. Fasciotti, M. A. Pudenzi, C. F. Klitzke, H. L. Nascimento, R. C. L. Pereira, W. L. Bastos and M. N. Eberlin, Analyst, 2016, 141, 2767 DOI: 10.1039/C5AN02333E

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