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C60: Buckminsterfullerene

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During experiments aimed at understanding the mechanisms by which long-chain carbon molecules are formed in interstellar space and circumstellar shells1, graphite has been vaporized by laser irradiation, producing a remarkably stable cluster consisting of 60 carbon atoms. Concerning the question of what kind of 60-carbon atom structure might give rise to a superstable species, we suggest a truncated icosahedron, a polygon with 60 vertices and 32 faces, 12 of which are pentagonal and 20 hexagonal. This object is commonly encountered as the football shown in Fig. 1. The C60 molecule which results when a carbon atom is placed at each vertex of this structure has all valences satisfied by two single bonds and one double bond, has many resonance structures, and appears to be aromatic.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rice Quantum Institute and Departments of Chemistry and Electrical Engineering, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77251, USA https://www.nature.com/nature

    H. W. Kroto, J. R. Heath, S. C. O’Brien, R. F. Curl & R. E. Smalley

  2. Permanent address: School of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QJ, UK. https://www.nature.com/nature

    H. W. Kroto

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  1. H. W. Kroto
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  2. J. R. Heath
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  3. S. C. O’Brien
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  4. R. F. Curl
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  5. R. E. Smalley
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Kroto, H., Heath, J., O’Brien, S. et al. C60: Buckminsterfullerene. Nature 318, 162–163 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1038/318162a0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/318162a0

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