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#Post#: 320--------------------------------------------------
Fullerenes and nanotechnology
DIR By: Michel
Date: June 17, 2012, 6:16 pm
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Until fairly recently, the element Carbon was thought to occur
in only two principal forms: diamond and graphite. In the year
1985, Harold Kroto, Richard E. Smalley and Robert F. Curl did
some experiments to simulate the conditions in certain stars to
see what kinds of carbon containing molecules might be produced.
The results of their experiments on the vaporization of
Graphite was quite surprising. In addition to the expected
molecular clusters of 2-30 Carbon atoms, the mass spectrum of
the vapor also showed the presence of a particularly abundant
C[sub]60molecule.
Analysing this problem carefully, Kroto, Smalley and Curl
concluded that the molecule must be like a piece of graphite
sheet that somehow closed on itself to form a closed model.
Smalley then began constructing a model of C[sub]60 by gluing
paper polygons together. He obtained a very stable, closed
polygon with 60 vertices. Kroto and Smalley named the molecule
buckminsterfullerene, after R. Buckminster Fuller, who studied
closed-dome architectural structures constructed from polygons.
The 1996 Nobel prize in Chemistry was awarded to professors
Curl, Kroto and Smalley for their discovery.
The truly unique characteristics of the buckyball make them
interesting subjects of wide applications. For example,
buckminsterfullerene has been prepared with just enough empty
space to enclose a potassium atom. This could mean that the
buckminsterfullerene can be used as a special storage device.
Buckminsterfullerene with K atoms in the spaces within the atoms
have shown the properties of superconductivity.
Carbon nanotubes have become an active area of research in
nanotech. Chemists have shown that they can make nanotubes bend
by applying a voltage to them. This property has been used to
create molecular scale tweezers. They can also function as a
computer memory devise
#Post#: 324--------------------------------------------------
Re: Fullerenes and nanotechnology
DIR By: Michel
Date: June 19, 2012, 2:03 am
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You may also find this article interesting
HTML http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2012/05/tiny-buckyball-grown-around-metal-atom
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