Fullertubes: Cylindrical Carbon with Half-Fullerene End-Caps and Tubular Graphene Belts, Their Chemical Enrichment, Crystallography of Pristine C-(1) and C-(1) Fullertubes, and Isolation of C, C, C, and C Cages of Unknown Structures.

We report a chemical separation method to isolate : a new and soluble allotrope of carbon whose structure merges nanotube, graphene, and fullerene subunits. Fullertubes possess single-walled carbon nanotube belts resembling a rolled graphene midsection, but with half-fullerene end-caps. Unlike nanotubes, fullertubes are reproducible in structure, possess a defined molecular weight, and are soluble in pristine form. The high reactivity of amines with spheroidal fullerene cages enables their removal and allows a facile isolation of C-(3), C-(1), and C-(1) fullertubes. A nonchromatographic step (Stage 1) uses a selective reaction of carbon cages with aminopropanol to permit a highly enriched sample of fullertubes. Spheroidal fullerenes are reacted and removed by attaching water-soluble groups onto their cage surfaces. With this enriched (100-1000 times) fullertube mixture, Stage 2 becomes a simple HPLC collection with a single column. This two-stage separation approach permits fullertubes in scalable quantities. Characterization of purified C-(1) fullertubes is done with samples isolated in and form. Surprisingly, C and C-(1) are both in solution. For X-ray crystallographic analysis, we used decapyrrylcorannulene (DPC). Isomerically purified C and C fullertubes were mixed with DPC to obtain black cocrystals of 2DPC{C-(1)}·4(toluene) and 2DPC{C-(1)}·4(toluene), respectively. A serendipitous outcome of this chemical separation approach is the enrichment and purification of several larger carbon species, e.g., C, C, and C. Isolation of these higher cage species represents a significant advance in the unknown arena of C-C structures. Our findings represent seminal evidence for the existence of mathematically predicted families of fullertubes: one family with an axial with the other series based on an axial ring. Fullertubes have been predicted theoretically, and herein is their experimental evidence, isolation, and initial characterization.