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.

Buckminsterfullerene

The smallest fullerene in which no two pentagons share an edge (which is destabilizing — see pentalene) is C60 (buckminsterfullerene), and as such it is also the most common.

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The structure of C60 is that of a truncated icosahedron, which resembles a round soccer ball of the type made of hexagons and pentagons, with a carbon atom at the corners of each hexagon and a bond along each edge. A polymerized single-walled nanotubule (P-SWNT) is a substance composed of polymerized fullerenes in which carbon atoms from one buckytube bond with carbons in other buckytubes.

Related Topics:
Truncated icosahedron - Soccer ball - Polymer - P-SWNT

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