Bonding and Structure

Discovery and Applications of fullerenes

By F.6A Chu Ka Chun (19)

Meaning of fullerenes
Fullerenes are a family of carbon allotropes. They are molecules composed entirely of carbon. They are in the form of a hollow sphere, ellipsoid, or tube.

Discovery of the first fullerene: C60

Robert Floyd Curl

In 1985, Prof. Harold W. Kroto of the University of Sussex joined Robert F. Curl and Prof. Richard E. Smalley at Rice University to study the products of carbon vaporization. They carried out molecular beam experiments. From the result, discrete peaks were observed corresponding to molecules with the exact mass of sixty or seventy or more carbon atoms. C60 was then discovered, and it was named buckminsterfullerene which is named after Richard Buckminster Fuller who designed geodesic domes which is the same structure as C60. Shortly after discovery of C60, it came to discover the fullerenes.

Harold Kroto

Richard Errett Smalley

Construction of the model of C60

Cut out 12 pieces of regular pentagon paper and 20 pieces of regular hexagons paper, keeping the length of their sides as the same. Use transparent tape to attach the shapes together. Each pentagon should be surrounded by 5 hexagons. Hexagons should be surrounded by three hexagons and three pentagons placed next to each other alternately. Fold up the large piece of paper to form a ball just as shown in the picture at the left. A model is finished!

Structures of some fullerenes

C60 (Buckminsterfullerene)
- it is like the shape of a football

*grey ball represents a carbon atom

Structures of some fullerenes

C20 (the smallest possible fullerene)

- structure consists of 12 pentagons as faces only

*grey ball represents a carbon atom

Applications of fullerenes

Polymer Additives - fullerenes and fullerenic black are chemically reactive and can be added to polymer structures to create new copolymers with specific physical and mechanical properties. Carbon Nanotubes - nanotubes are cylindrical fullerenes. These tubes of carbon are usually only a few nanometers wide, but they have high tensile strength, high electrical conductivity, high resistance to heat, and relative chemical inactivity.

These tubes can help to make useful substances. For examples: - tennis racket - superconductor - composite used in aircraft

Reference websites

More about fullerenes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fullerene More about the structure of fullerenes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geodesic_dom e#Methods_of_construction