| United States Patent | 5,420,081 |
| Mattes, et. al. | May 30, 1995 |
| Inventors: | Mattes; Benjamin R. (Santa Fe, NM); McBranch; Duncan W. (Santa Fe, NM); Robinson; Jeanne M. (Los Alamos, NM); Koskelo; Aaron C. (Los Alamos, NM); Love; Steven P. (Los Alamos, NM). |
| Assignee: | The Regents of the University of California Office of Technology Transfer (Alameda, CA). |
| Appl. No.: | 221,421 |
| Filed: | Mar. 31, 1994 |
| Intl. Cl.: | C03C 14/00; |
| U.S. Cl.: | 501/12.; 501/32.; |
| Field of Search: | 12;32;54 |
| 5,172,278 | Dec., 1992 | Tutt | 359/885 |
| 5,200,334 | Apr., 1993 | Dunn et al. | |
| 5,270,027 | Dec., 1993 | Balducci et al. |
Zerda et al, "Diffusion of C(60) In Porous Sol-Gel Glass", J. Non-Cryst. olids (1994), 168(1-2), 33-41.
D. Avnir et al., "The Encapsulation of Organic Molecules and Enzymes in Sol-Gel Glasses: Novel Photoactive, Optical, Sensing, and Bioactive Materials. A Review," NTIS No. AD-A244 154/1/HDM, Report No. R/D-5548-MS-01 (1992) no month.
S. J. Kramer et al., "Polyaniline-ORMOSIL Nanocomposites," in Chemical Processing of Advanced Materials (John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, 1992), Chap. 65, p. 737 no month.
Sheng Dai et al., "Preparation of C(70) -doped Solid Silica Gel via Sol-Gel Process," J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 75, 2865 (1992) no month.
L. Esquivias et al., "Sonogels: An Alternative Method in Sol-Gel Processing" in Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Ultrastructure Processing, (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1988), p. 255 no month.
Synthesis of fullerene/glass composites. A direct method for preparing solid solutions of C(60) in silicon dioxide (SiO(2)) glass matrices by means of sol-gel chemistry is described. In order to produce highly concentrated fullerene-sol-gel-composites it is necessary to increase the solubility of these "guests" in a delivery solvent which is compatible with the starter sol (receiving solvent). Sonication results in aggregate disruption by treatment with high frequency sound waves, thereby accelerating the rate of hydrolysis of the alkoxide precursor, and the solution process for the C(60). Depending upon the preparative procedure, C(60) dispersed within the glass matrix as microcrystalline domains, or dispersed as true molecular solutions of C(60) in a solid glass matrix, is generated by the present method.
The invention was made with government support under Contract No. W-7405-ENG-36 awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy to The Regents of the University of California. The Government has certain rights in the invention.