Fullerene tubes

Ge93 M. Ge and K. Sattler, Vapor-Condensation Generation and STM Analysis of Fullerene Tubes, Science 260, 515-518 (1993). 

Vapor-Condensation Generation and STM Analysis of Fullerene Tubes... 

Characterisation of these fullerene tubes was done by electro-deposition [developed by Smalley and cowoikers, see above references] which drives the snspended tnbes onto the surface of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite surface and are scanned by AFM. The molecular nature of the tubes was demonstrated by converting their CO2H groups to COCl, followed by reaction with H2N(CH2)nSH and exposure to lOnm gold particles. Gold (which reacts with SH) was only fonnd on the carboxylated fullerene tubes. 

The field of fullerene chemistry expanded in an unexpected direction in 1991 when Sumio lijima of the NEC Fundamental Research Laboratories in Japan discovered fibrous carbon clusters in one of his fullerene preparations This led within a short time to substances of the type portrayed in Figure 11 7 called single-walled nanotubes The best way to think about this material IS as a stretched fullerene Take a molecule of Ceo cut it in half and place a cylindrical tube of fused six membered carbon rings between the two halves... 

C.-H. Kiang e o/.[33] reported that the singlelayered coiled lubes were obtained by co-vaporizing cobalt with carbon in an arc fullerene generator. A single-layered helical structure with radii of curvature as small as 20 nm was seen. These helically coiled forms lend to bundle together. In the soot obtained with sulfur-containing anodes, they also found the 1.3-nm diameter lube coil around the 3.6 nm tube (see Fig. 14). This kind of structure was theoretically proposed in ref. [14]. 

Preparation research of SWCNT was also put forth by lijima and his co-worker [3]. The structure of SWCNT consists of an enrolled graphene to form a tube without seam. The length and diameter depend on the kinds of the metal catalyst used in the synthesis. The maximum length is several jim and the diameter varies from 1 to 3 nm. The thinnest diameter is about the same as that of Cgo (i.e., ca. 0.7 nm). The structure and characteristics of SWCNT are apparently different from those of MWCNT and rather near to fullerenes. Hence novel physical properties of SWCNT as the one-dimensional material between molecule and bulk are expected. On the other hand, the physical property of MWCNT is almost similar to that of graphite used as bulk [6c]. 

An alternative mode for dehydrobenzoannulene decomposition was recently reported by Vollhardt et al. [58]. Non-planar hybrid 81, prepared in low yield via cyclodimerization of known triyne 82 [Eq.(3)], reacted explosively at ca. 250°C to give a nearly pure carbon residue. Solvent extraction of the black powder failed to yield soluble materials such as fullerenes however, analysis of the residue by TEM showed formation of bucky onions and bucky tubes [59], in addition... 

The newest addition to the forms of elemental carbon is the nanotube. A carbon nanotube is a long cylinder of carbon atoms, connected together in much the same way as in a fullerene. Both the diameter and the length of carbon nano-tubes can vary. Properties of nanotubes, such as their ability to conduct electrical charge, change dramatically with the dimensions of the tube. Carbon nanotubes are under intensive study. For example, a carbon nanotube laid down on a silicon chip forms a molecular transistor. Such devices may eventually lead to further miniaturization of the chips that are at the heart of modem computers. 

Bucky balls (football molecules) were only discovered in 1985 and named fullerene after the architect Buckminster-Fuller. The Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1996 was awarded for this new carbon chemistry. Molecular tubes with this structure have particularly interesting properties. 

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