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Nature Chemistry (19 September 2008) | doi:10.1038/nchem.65

Fullerenes: Buckyballs go flat

Neil Withers

Buckminsterfullerene is a highly symmetrical molecule, and its famous truncated icosahedral structure looks similar to a soccer ball, but with pentagons and hexagons of carbon. However, this is only one of 1812 potential isomers of C60, and the only one in which all the pentagons are isolated from each other.