World Journal of Nano Science and Engineering, 2012, 2, 213-218 http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/wjnse.2012.24029 Published Online December 2012 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/wjnse) Microstructural Characterization of Large Area C 60 Films Obtained by Conventional Microwave Oven Irradiation Jacobo Martínez-Reyes 1 , Lucia Graciela Díaz Barriga-Arceo 2 , Luis Rendón-Vazquez 3 , Reynaldo Martínez-Guerrero 4 , Néstor Romero-Partida 4 , Eduardo Palacios-González 5 , Vicente Garibay-Febles 5 , Jaime Ortiz-López 1 1 National Polytechnic Institute (IPN), ESFM, UPALM, Mexico City, Mexico 2 National Polytechnic Institute (IPN), ESIQIE, UPALM, Mexico City, Mexico 3 Facultad de Ciencias, UNAM, Mexico City, Mexico 4 ROMFER S.A. de C.V., Mexico City, Mexico 5 IMP-Molecular Engineering Program, Mexico City, Mexico Email: jacobomartinezreyes@gmail.com, luchell@yahoo.com Received August 14, 2012; revised August 28, 2012; accepted September 5, 2012 ABSTRACT In the present work the synthesis of C 60 produced in a conventional microwave oven from the decomposition of cam- phor resin is reported. The polycrystalline structure of the sample was determined by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), the sam- ple showed several phases, the main phase corresponds to fullerene C 60 ordered in a Face-Centered Cubic structure (FCC), with two more structures: one orthorhombic system and the other the monoclinic system coexisting also with graphite 2H phase. It was observed in a Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), that the sample formed thin films of stacked carbon. Whereas in a High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HRTEM), measurements in Bright Field mode revealed that the main phase of the material is C 60 ordered in FCC structure and the elemental composition and atomic bonding state can be determined by analyzing the energy with the electron microscope by Elesctron Energy- Loss Spectroscopy (EELS), technique allowed confirm all the phase C 60 established with XRD observations. Keywords: Microwave-Assisted Synthesis; Carbon Film; Fullerene 1. Introduction Carbon thin films are important for the development of applications due to the physicochemical properties [1-5]. Several methods are currently used for the preparation of carbon films such as: the condensation of steam to car- bon, magnetron sputtering, mechanical peeling, chemical vapor deposition, physical vapor deposition [6-11] among others. In these methods the films are obtained in tem- perature conditions at ranges of 950˚C - 1250˚C with different energies from 100 to 1000 eV at pressure from 1 to 5 × 10 –7 Tor using inert atmospheres or carbon gases as control atmospheres, flowing in a continuous way to obtain small area films with thicknesses from 500 nm to 10 microns and crystalline or amorphous structure [12], making this synthesis expensive. Comparing the chemi- cal precursors used in the synthesis of carbon films, it was observed that organic resins present more advan- tages than the inorganic precursors because some of these resins are environment friendly that is why cam- phor resin was chosen [13-15]. It is important to mention that camphor C 10 H 16 O resin has been successfully used in carbon nanomaterial synthesis and also in carbon films [16-20]. Therefore the Microwave Assisted Synthesis (MAOS) [21-28], is a cost-effective alternative technol- ogy which reduces the impact on the environment by saving energy, being able to produce materials and mi- crostructures that cannot be performed by other methods. The aim of this work was to find the synthesis and mi- crostructural of carbon films to characterization them carbon films by microwave radiation a resins of com- mercial camphor. 2. Experimental Details 2.1. Microwave Oven Preparation The plate was removed from the microwave oven and the samples were placed in a position where the microwave radiation reaches the maximum. Determinations of max- imum and minimum points were done as reported in lit- erature [29]. Resin sample were located in one of the points where microwave radiation has one maximum. 2.2. Sample Preparation For this work 250 mg of camphor Sigma-Aldrich were Copyright © 2012 SciRes. WJNSE