Buckyballs are spherical or ellipsoidal cages made of carbon atoms, known as fullerenes. They are strong but expensive to produce and come in various sizes. Fullerenes were discovered in 1985 and can trap other atoms inside them. They are largely inert and can be dissolved in liquids. Metal fullerenes and other variations are possible, and manufacturing involves creating a plasma arc through a block of graphite.
A buckyball is a spherical or ellipsoidal cage made up of covalently bonded carbon atoms. It is a fullerene, an allotrope (arrangement) of carbon, like graphite and diamond. C60 is the first fullerene discovered, and is known as buckminsterfullerene, after architect Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic domes, which the molecule resembles. Fullerenes are extremely strong but relatively expensive to produce and purify. Another variety of fullerenes are nanotubes, which are cylindrical rather than spherical.
Fullerenes were first discovered in 1985 by Harold Kroto, James Heath, Sean O’Brien, Robert Curl and Richard Smalley in molecular beam experiments. Later, they were observed in common places where carbon is found, such as candle soot. Eventually Kroto, Curl and Smalley were awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work with these molecules.
Buckyballs come in all sizes. The smallest consists of 20 carbon atoms and one of the largest has 540, although even larger variants are likely to be discovered or produced. Those most frequently encountered have 60 or 70 carbon atoms.
Because these molecules form large cages, sometimes other atoms get trapped inside them. Evidence for an asteroid impact at the end of the Permian was found by analyzing the noble gases trapped in this way.
Fullerenes are the only carbon allotrope that can be dissolved in liquids, and even then, only in small amounts. A pure fullerene solution is purple in color. While there have been questions about buckyball’s safety for marine animals, they are known to be largely inert, and the evidence against their reactivity is much higher than for it.
Metal fullerenes combine metal ions with carbon atoms together, and other variations are also possible. Research in this area has just begun.
The most common manufacturing method for these molecules is to place a block of graphite between two electrodes and send a charge through the block. The resulting plasma arc causes the creation of many fullerenes, which must then be isolated from the surrounding soot.
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