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Fullerenes

C60's smallest cousin

Nature volume 393, pages 730–731 (1998)Cite this article

In 1990, Kratschmer, Lamb, Fostiropoulos and Huffman (KLFH)1 caught the chemical world off-guard when they announced their synthesis of C60-buckminsterfullerene. It was surprising not only that bulk quantities of fullerenes could be prepared, but also that the process was so simple. In chemical terms, the KLFH synthesis is essentially a single-step procedure — strike an arc across two graphite electrodes and large quantities of fullerenes are produced.

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Figure 1: Little and large relations — C60 surrounded by seven of its smaller C36-fullerene cousins, which Piskoti et al.4 have prepared in bulk form.

References

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  1. The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California at Los Angeles, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, 90095-1569, California, USA

    James R. Heath

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  1. James R. Heath
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Heath, J. C60's smallest cousin. Nature 393, 730–731 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/31579

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