Synonyms
Definition
A fullerene is a carbon molecule arranged in the form of a hollow sphere. Any graphene sheet can be closed into a fullerene cage provided that 12 pentagons are inserted into the sheet of condensed hexagonal rings. Only fullerenes having the 12 pentagonal sites fully annealed by hexagonal rings are stable and have been isolated in macroscopic quantity. This is an important rule regulating the fullerene stability. The fullerenes isolated in macroscopic quantity are those following strictly the isolated pentagons rule: C60, C70, C76, C84, C90, C94…. Each fullerene contains 2(10+ζ) carbon atoms corresponding to 12 pentagonal sites and ζ hexagons. This building principle is a consequence of Euler’s theorem (e.g., Kirk 2007). Fullerenes can have elements (metals, noble gases) trapped inside the cages, and these molecules are known as endohedral fullerenes (Kroto et al. 1991).
History
The structure of the most common fullerene, C
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References and Further Reading
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Cataldo, F., Iglesias-Groth, S. (2014). Fullerene. In: Amils, R., et al. Encyclopedia of Astrobiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_604-7
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