Carbon fullerene

An alternative approach envisages the stimulating idea to produce an all-carbon fullerene polymer in which adjacent fullerenes are linked by covalent bonds and align in well characterized one-, two- and tliree-dimensional arrays. Polymerization of [60]fullerene, with the selective fonnation of covalent bonds, occurs upon treatment under pressure and relatively high temperatures, or upon photopolymerization in the absence of a triplet quencher,... 

The birth of the field of carbon nanotubes is marked by the publication by lijima of the observation of multi-walled nanotubes with outer diameters as small as 55 A, and inner diameters as small as 23 A, and a nanotube consisting of only two coaxial cylinders [2]. This paper was important in making the connection between carbon fullerenes, which are quantum dots, with carbon nanotubes, which are quantum wires. FurtheiTnore this seminal paper [2] has stimulated extensive theoretical and experimental research for the past five years and has led to the creation of a rapidly developing research field. 

In 1985, another allotropic form of carbon, fullerenes, were discovered. Two important fullerenes are C60 and C70. 

Usenko CY, Flarper SL, Tanguay RL (2007) In vivo evaluation of carbon fullerene toxicity using embryonic zebrafish. Carbon 45 1891-1898. 

An Austrian team boosts the performance of plastic cells by mixing a conducting polymer, MDMO-PPV (an asymmetrically substituted polyphenylenevinylene),with a molecule made from carbon fullerene. .. 

The raw product obtained by the evaporation of graphite is soot and slag. Next to soluble fullerenes the soot and slag contain other kinds of closed carbon structures, e.g. giant fullerenes [187] and nanotubes [188, 189] the rest is amorphous carbon. Fullerenes can be isolated from the soot either by sublimation or by extraction. The first isolation of fullerenes was achieved by a simple sublimation with a Bunsen... 

Btlhl and Thiel used the chemical shifts of a 3He atom (see above)132,133 encaged within a fullerene for evaluating the degree of aromaticity of carbon fullerenes. A similar study is required for evaluating the degree of aromaticity of Sigo-... 

Carbon is likely to congeal to high-molecular-weight polymers as H2 distills off. In extraterrestrial environments, we expect lower hydrocarbons eventually to transform into pure carbon, either diamond (in which all the carbons are singly bonded to other carbons), fullerenes and graphite (in which each interaction between a pair of carbons is the approximate equivalent of 1.5 bonds), or carbon bonded to other elements that cannot be converted to a volatile form. 

New spatial forms of carbon - fullerenes, nanotubes, nanowires and nanofibers attract significant interest since the time of their discovery due to their unique physicochemical and mechanical properties [1-3]. There are three basic methods of manufacturing of the carbon nanomaterials (CNM) - laser evaporation, electric arc process, and catalytic pyrolysis of hydrocarbons. However, the multi-stage manufacturing process is a serious disadvantage for all of them. For example, the use of organic solvents (benzol, toluene, etc.) for separation of fullerenes from graphite soot results in delay of the synthesis process and decrease in the final product quantity. Moreover, some environmental problems can arise at this. 

Since the discovery of fullerenes the scientific community has been taking an active interest in peculiarities of the fullerene formation and structure, physical and chemical properties. The fourth allotropic modification of carbon (fullerene) is unique molecule having a spatial structure with icosahedral symmetry and showing distinctive properties in interaction with other substances. Under certain conditions fullerenes can accept and donate hydrogen atoms to form hydrofullerenes. 

In the mid-1980s, virtually simultaneous reports on two new precise molecular level constructions of sub-nanoscopic/nanoscopic size appeared in the literature. In 1984 we (DAT) reported the synthesis, isolation and characterization of the first iterated series of Starburst/cascade dendrimers based on genealogical synthesis [2, 77-83]. The following year Smalley, Curl and Kroto described the first observation of a 60-carbon fullerene by mass spectroscopy [43a]. More recently the synthesis of buckminsterfullerene has been achieved by physicists at the Max Planck Institute in Heidelberg [44] to give macroscopic quantities of the third allotropic and first molecular form of carbon, named after Buckminster Fuller. Similarities between these two constructions were not initially apparent, but in retrospect they deserve comment in so far as they each involve molecular level synthesis leading to closed geometrical architecture". 

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