Fullerene

Fullerenes are one of only four types of naturally occurring forms of carbon (the other three being diamond, graphite and ceraphite). They are molecules composed entirely of carbon, taking the form of a hollow sphere, ellipsoid, or tube. Spherical fullerenes are sometimes called buckyballs, while cylindrical fullerenes are called buckytubes or nanotubes.

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The molecule was named for Richard Buckminster Fuller, a noted architect who popularized the geodesic dome. Since buckminsterfullerenes have a similar shape to that sort of dome, the name was thought to be appropriate.

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Fullerenes are similar in structure to graphite, which is composed of a sheet of linked hexagonal rings, but they contain pentagonal (or sometimes heptagonal) rings that prevent the sheet from being planar.

Carbon: :Alternative meaning: Carbon (API)...

Diamond: The mineral diamond is a crystalline form, or allotrope, of carbon (other allotropes of carbon include graphite, fullerene and ceraphite). It is one of the most known and most useful of more than 3,000 known minerals. Diamonds are renowned for their superlative physical qualities, especially their h...

Graphite: Graphite (named by Abraham Gottlob Werner in 1789, from the Greek γραφειν: "to draw/write", for its use in pencils) is one of the allotropes of carbon. Unlike diamond, graphite is a conductor, and can be used, for instance, as the material in the electrodes of an ...