High quality hexagonal fullerene rods with sub-micrometre dimensions can be made by a quick and simple bench-top process.

Due to their remarkable strength and their ability to conduct electrons, fullerene-based materials have shown great promise for use in nanoscale electronic devices such as organic solar cells.

So far, it has proven difficult and expensive to make fullerene structures with high enough quality and purity for these purposes, but Richard Curry and colleagues say they have found the solution. Curry, a researcher at the Advanced Technology Institute at the University of Surrey, Guildford, UK, in collaboration with researchers at the Florida State University, Tallahassee, US, made high purity single-crystal rods of C₆₀ fullerenes with sub-micrometre diameters in just a few minutes. The researchers made the rods by gradually adding a C₆₀-toluene solution into an alcohol solvent.

Rod-like fullerene structures are particularly attractive because they maintain some of the properties of the C₆₀ molecules and can even improve on them, said Curry. 'Their larger size and crystalline rod-like nature may allow efficient charge transport ... the large surface area is also of interest for nanoscale sensing devices as any interaction between the analyte and rods is maximised.'

Kyriakos Porfyrakis, a specialist in fullerenes at the University of Oxford, UK, said the work was significant. 'There are still challenges ahead such as accurately controlling the size of nanorods and better understanding of their electronic properties, but this is a step in the right direction,' he said.

Debora Giovanelli