Fullerenes are prepared from three high rank coals by arc plasma evaporation in helium. The results show that Chinese coals are potential candidates for producing fullerenes

and the yields of fullerenes are related to the properties of raw coals

such as ash content in coal and carbon content in coke electrodes made from coals.Because coal contains weak covalent bonds linking macromolecular structural units with a number of aromatic rings

large fragments can coexist in the arc plasma together with C 1 and C 2 units.This implies that these large fragments may play an important role in forming fullerenes.It is also found that the fullerene yields decrease as the ash content in coal increases

and increase with increasing carbon content in coal-based coke electrodes.The demineralization treatment is of great help to fullerene formation.The fullerene yield from Fengfeng coal after demineralization treatment is 6.51%

which is comparable to that obtained by using graphite under similar experimental conditions.