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Molecular soccer balls connected to make a 2D material

Two-dimensional materials made of carbon have been limited to monolayers of atoms, such as graphene. Sheets composed of connected buckyballs — spherical clusters of atoms — have now been made by peeling layers from a crystal.
  1. J. Michael Gottfried

    1. J. Michael Gottfried is in the Department of Chemistry, Philipps University of Marburg, 35032 Marburg, Germany.

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Ever since the discovery that single-atom-thick sheets of carbon, known as graphene, have unique properties, carbon-based 2D nanomaterials have received much attention in research and technology. There have been two main ways to make 2D nanomaterials: building them up from smaller units, such as atoms or molecules; and peeling single layers of materials from a 3D crystal. Writing in Nature, Hou et al.1 show that these two approaches can be combined to make a new form of carbon that consists of soccer-ball-shaped C60 molecules, known colloquially as buckyballs, linked by carbon–carbon (C–C) bonds (Fig. 1a). This polymeric material has properties that make it potentially suitable for use in 2D electronic and optoelectronic devices.

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Nature 606, 470-471 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01568-4

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Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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