Buckminsterfullerene

Some tiny things look like balls.

They look just like a football. These balls are made of carbon. Each ball has sixty tiny parts. They are shaped like a cage.

These balls are very small. They are even in space! You can find them in black soot, too.

They can turn a liquid purple. These tiny balls are very neat.

Buckminsterfullerene is a tiny molecule made of carbon. People often call it a "buckyball." It looks like a football.

This shape comes from its parts. It has twenty hexagons and twelve pentagons. These shapes form a cage.

This cage holds sixty carbon atoms. Each atom is bonded to three others.

Scientists found these balls in 1985. They used a laser to make them. They also found them in soot. You can even find them in space!

In space, they exist near stars.

Buckminsterfullerene is a black solid. It can dissolve in certain liquids. When it dissolves, the liquid turns purple. If the liquid dries, it turns brown. This happens because the molecules change how they act. The molecule is very small. It is about 1.01 nanometers wide. A nanometer is a tiny unit of measure. Scientists named it after an architect named R. Buckminster Fuller. He designed buildings that looked like these shapes.

Buckminsterfullerene is a very special type of molecule made of carbon. People often call these tiny structures "buckyballs."

This molecule is famous because of its unique cage-like shape. It is a truncated icosahedron, which is a math term for a specific shape. This shape is made of twenty hexagons and twelve pentagons. Because of this, the molecule looks just like a football.

It is a black solid in its natural state. If you dissolve it in certain liquids, the solution turns a deep purple color.

How does this tiny cage stay together? The structure is held together by sixty carbon atoms. Each individual atom is bonded to three of its neighbors.

These bonds create a strong, closed shell. The molecule has two different types of bond lengths. The bonds between two hexagons are shorter than the bonds between a hexagon and a pentagon. The average length of a bond is only 0.14 nanometers. The whole molecule is very small, with a diameter of about 1.01 nanometers.

Scientists discovered these molecules in 1985. A team at Rice University led by Harold Kroto, James R. Heath, Sean C. O'Brien, Robert Curl, and Richard Smalley identified the structure. They used a laser to vaporize graphite. This created a hot plasma that was passed through helium gas. This process helped the carbon atoms cool and form clusters. The team saw a strong signal at 720 daltons, which showed sixty carbon atoms were forming. For this great work, Kroto, Curl, and Smalley won the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

There are many interesting facts about where these molecules live. Buckminsterfullerene is the most common type of fullerene found in nature. You can find small amounts of it in soot.

It even exists out in space! It can be found in planetary nebulae and near certain types of stars. In the interstellar medium, it can even be found in an ionized form. This form helps create special light patterns called diffuse interstellar bands.

This molecule connects to many things we see every day. The name comes from an architect named R. Buckminster Fuller. He was famous for designing geodesic dome structures. These buildings have shapes that look very much like the buckyball.

Even though it is a tiny molecule, it has many different uses. Scientists study how it reacts with things like fluorine or oxygen. Some researchers even found that if you compress it, it can turn into a superhard form of diamond.

Buckminsterfullerene is a unique type of carbon molecule. It is often called a "buckyball" by scientists.

This molecule is a member of a larger group called fullerenes. It is famous for its hollow, cage-like structure. This shape is known mathematically as a truncated icosahedron. The molecule is a black solid in its pure form. When dissolved in certain solvents, it creates a deep purple solution.

Understanding this molecule helps us learn about how carbon can organize itself.

The structure of buckminsterfullerene is very precise. It consists of exactly 60 carbon atoms. These atoms are arranged at the vertices of a shape made of 32 faces. There are 20 hexagons and 12 pentagons in the structure.

No two pentagons ever share a vertex. The molecule has 90 edges that connect the atoms. Some edges connect two hexagons, while others connect a hexagon to a pentagon. The bonds between two hexagons are shorter than the others. The average bond length is 0.14 nanometers. The total diameter of the molecule is about 1.01 nanometers.

Scientists have found several ways to create and study these molecules. One common method is through the laser ablation of graphite. This involves using a laser to vaporize carbon. This creates a hot plasma that is passed through helium gas. The carbon species then cool and form clusters. Another method involves the pyrolysis of aromatic hydrocarbons. This process produces soot that contains fullerenes. Researchers can then extract the molecules using organic solvents. They use a tool called a Soxhlet extractor to collect them.

The discovery of buckminsterfullerene changed the field of chemistry. In 1984, researchers Eric Rohlfing, Donald Cox, and Andrew Kaldor first generated the molecule. They used a laser to vaporize carbon in a helium beam. However, they did not realize they had made buckminsterfullerene. In 1985, a team at Rice University confirmed the discovery. This team included Harold Kroto, James R. Heath, Sean C. O'Brien, Robert Curl, and Richard Smalley. They used laser vaporization on graphite to create carbon clusters. They found a strong peak at 720 daltons. This number indicated a molecule with 60 carbon atoms. For this discovery, Kroto, Curl, and Smalley won the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Buckminsterfullerene is a very common fullerene in nature. Small amounts can be found in soot. It also exists in the vastness of space. It can be seen in planetary nebulae and near certain types of stars. An ionized form of the molecule exists in the interstellar medium. This form causes absorption features called diffuse interstellar bands in near-infrared light.

These observations connect tiny molecules to the largest structures in the universe.

The molecule has many surprising physical properties. In solid form, the molecules arrange themselves in a pattern called face-centered cubic.

This solid is normally as soft as graphite. However, if you compress it to less than 70% of its volume, it changes. It transforms into a superhard form of diamond. The molecule can also act as a semiconductor. If you add alkali metals into the gaps of the crystal, it can become a superconductor. This means it can carry electricity with almost no resistance.

The name of the molecule honors an important person. It is named after the architect R. Buckminster Fuller. He was known for designing geodesic dome structures. These large buildings look very similar to the shape of a buckyball.

Today, the study of fullerenes continues to grow. Scientists explore how they react with elements like fluorine, chlorine, or oxygen. These studies help us understand new ways to build materials at the atomic level.