Abstract
We present in this paper a new original process for fullerenes production consisting of treating carbon powders through a 3-phase thermal plasma. The main difference with the classical arc process is that the input carbon rate, not limited to the electrodes erosion, can be independently controlled. As expected, the experiments carried out using ten different industrial carbon grades have shown a high sensitivity depending on the carbon precursor. These results have confirmed that the new process is a very promising route for producing bulk quantities of fullerenes. Before optimization, 3.5% of extractable fullerenes were obtained at atmospheric pressure with acetylene black.