The Study of the Optical Properties of C60 Fullerene in Different Organic Solvents

fullerene exhibits unique optical properties that have high potential for wide photo-optical applications. To analyze the optical properties of C , its excitation and emission properties were studied using UV-Vis absorption and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, which were performed in various, non-polar organic solvents such as toluene, xylene, and trichloroethylene (TCE). The C solutions in toluene, xylene, and TCE displayed similar excitation bands at 625, 591, 570, 535, and 404 nm corresponding to → and → transitions. However, these bands differed from the solid C observed by UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. The two emission band energies of C solution in toluene and xylene were nearly the same (1.78 and 1.69 eV), whereas the C solution in TCE was shifted to 1.72 and 1.65 eV. Because the polarity of TCE is higher than that of toluene and xylene, the PL spectrum of the C solution in TCE was red-shifted. The PL spectroscopy had a better capability than UV-Vis absorbance spectroscopy to distinguish the different interactions between C and the organic solvents due to their different solvent polarities.