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buckminsterfullerene

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buckminsterfullerene (bŭk'mĭnstərfl`ərēn', –fl'ərēn`) or buckyball, C60, hollow cage carbon carbon [Lat.,=charcoal], nonmetallic chemical element; symbol C; at. no. 6; at. wt. 12.011; m.p. about 3,550°C;; graphite sublimes about 3,375°C;; b.p. 4,827°C;; sp. gr. 1.8–2.1 (amorphous), 1.9–2.3 (graphite), 3.15–3.
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 molecule named for R. Buckminster Fuller Fuller, R. Buckminster (Richard Buckminster Fuller), 1895–1983, American architect and engineer, b. Milton, Mass. Fuller devoted his life to the invention of revolutionary technological designs aimed at solving problems of modern living.
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 because of the resemblance of its molecular structure to his geodesic domes. Although buckminsterfullerene (C60) was originally detected in soot in 1985, isolation was first reported in 1990. The soccerball-like molecules are prepared in helium by passing about 150 amps through a carbon rod and extracting the soot with benzene; the resulting magenta solution contains C60 and C70. See fullerene fullerides. Among these are conducting films of alkali metal-doped fullerenes and superconductors (potassium-doped Tc 18°K;, rubidium-doped Tc 30°K;). Fullerenes also have been used to produce tiny diamonds and thin diamond films.
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Bibliography

See J. Baggot, Perfect Symmetry: The Accidental Discovery of Buckminsterfullerene (1996); H. Aldersey-Williams, The Most Beautiful Molecule: The Discovery of the Buckyball (1997).



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Each wheel was a molecule called buckminsterfullerene, which consists of 60 carbon atoms arranged in a pattern that looks like the surface of a soccer ball.
Scientists first stumbled upon the family in 1985 with the discovery of the soccer-ball-shaped sphere known as buckminsterfullerene, or buckyball.
More recently, studies have been undertaken to elucidate the dynamical properties and their relation to structure of carbonaceous molecular solids such as the nearly spherical buckminsterfullerene ([C.
 
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