Composition of hydrofullerene mixtures produced by C(60) reaction with hydrogen gas revealed by high-resolution mass spectrometry.

Complex solid hydrofulleride mixtures were synthesized by prolonged hydrogenation of C(60) at 120 bar hydrogen pressure, 673 K temperature, and different reaction periods. The high degree of hydrogenation was confirmed by infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. The identity of hydrogenation products was determined by high-resolution field desorption/ionization Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry. Despite partial gas-phase fragmentation of hydrofullerene ions during mass analysis, the data suggest that the synthesized mixtures consist of mostly C(58-60)H(x) hydrofullerenes. Increasing the duration of hydrogenation results in synthesis of C(59)H(x) and C(58)H(x) as major products. Possible hydrofullerene fragmentation pathways during both material synthesis and mass spectrometric analysis are discussed. Gas-phase fragmentation in the mass spectrometer arises from hydrofullerene ions C(60)H(x)(+) with x > 40 and C(59)H(44)(+) with drastically decreased molecular stability relative to the known C(60)H(36).