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