Fullerenes -

Michael Sutherland, Higher Chemistry

Fullerenes are an allotrope of carbon. They have a spherical or tube shape,

in which carbon atoms are arranged. Buckminsterfullerene is an example
of a Fullerene. Here is a diagram of buckminsterfullerene:

They're 60 carbon atoms in buckminsterfullerene It could be used for

nanotubes on tennis rackets to make the frames lighter and stronger. Here

is graphite, another allotrope of carbon. Graphite is high melting point, is a

soft molecule (London disperse forces cause it to break easily) and it can
conduct electricity. It is covalently bonded (not a covalent network).
Buckminsterfullerene is a weakly bonded by covalent bonding, and cannot
conduct electricity. Here is a diagram of diamond:

Diamond is covalently bonded, and is a giant covalent network. Diamond

is also an allotrope of carbon. It cannot conduct electricity but is a very
strong molecule, and can be used at the tips of drills in various industries,
of which includes a drill used in the oil industry to dig through the ground.
Added to the tip of the drill. Buckminsterfullerene is comparison is also
covalently bonded. They're weakly bonded.

"http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1996/press.html - Fullerenes
are formed when vaporised carbon condenses in an atmosphere of inert
gas. The gaseous carbon is obtained e.g. by directing an intense pulse of
laser light at a carbon surface. The released carbon atoms are mixed with a
stream of helium gas and combine to form clusters of some few up to
hundreds of atoms. The gas is then led into a vacuum chamber where it
expands and is cooled to some degrees above absolute zero. The carbon
clusters can then be analysed with a mass spectrometry.
Fullerenes may be used for drug delivery systems in the body, in
lubricants and as catalysts. http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/add_aqa/bonding/structure_propertiesrev8.shtml

Fullerenes
These are small molecules of carbon in which the giant structure is closed over into spheres of
atoms (bucky balls) or tubes (sometimes caled nano-tubes). The smallest fullerene has 60 carbon
atoms arranged in pentagons and hexagons like a football. This is called Buckminsterfullerene.
The name 'buckminster fullerene' comes from the inventor of the geodhesic dome (Richard
Buckminster Fuller) which has a similar structure to a fullerene. Fullerenes were first isolated from
the soot of chimineys and extracted from solvents as red crystals.
The bonding has delocalised pi molecular orbitals extending throughout the structure and the carbon
atoms are a mixture of sp2 and sp3 hybridised systems.
Fullerenes are insoluble in water but soluble in methyl benzene. They are non- conductors as the
individual molecules are only held to each other by weak van der Waal's forces. http://ibchem.com/IB/ibnotes/full/bon_htm/14.4.htm

Property

Explanation

Fullerene structure

Soft and slippery

Brittle

Few covalent bonds

holding the molecules
together but only
weak Vander Waals
forces between
molecules.
Soft weak crystals
typical of covalent
substances

Electrical insulator

No movement of
electrons available
from one molecule to
the next. The
exception could be
the formation of
nano-tubes that are
capable of conducting
electricity along their
length. These are the
subject of some
experiments in micro
electronics

Insoluble in water.

There are only very

weak Van der Waal's
attractions between
the carbon atoms and
the water molecules
whereas the carbon
atoms are bonded
very tightly to one
another in the
molecules.

Low m.p. solids

Typical of covalent
crystals where only
Van der Waal's
interactions have to
be broken for
melting.

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