Synthesis of nitrogen-doped fullerenes by laser ablation

Fullerene molecules doped with nitrogen atoms were synthesized using laser ablation of graphite in a heated nitrogen gas. Laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight and Fourier transform mass spectroscopic studies revealed the presence of C-m-N-1(+) ions (m = 60, 70, etc) as well as pure carbon fullerene ions C-m(+). The presence of nitrogen in the product was confirmed by isotope labelled experiments using N-15(2). X-ray photoemission spectroscopy measurements showed the nitrogen 1s level at 400.7 eV.