Facile Method toward Hierarchical Fullerene Architectures with Enhanced Hydrophobicity and Photoluminescence

A two-step self-assembly strategy has been developed for the preparation of fullerene hierarchical architectures. Typically, the precipitation method is utilized to synthesize the initial fullerene microstructures, and subsequently a drop-drying process is employed to facilitate the fullerene microstructures to self-assemble into the final hierarchical structures. Overall, this methodology is quite simple and feasible, which can be applied to prepare fullerene hierarchical structures with different morphological features, simply by choosing proper solvent. Moreover, the as-obtained C-70 hierarchical structures have many superior properties over the original C-70 microrods such as superhydrophobicity and unique photoluminescence behaviors, promising their applications as waterproof optoelectronics.