fullerene

Carbon nanotubes are often demonstrated as rolled-up graphene. However one can get to the concept of carbon nanotubes starting out of fullerenes too. The animation below shows that taking longer and longer fullerenes can result — at least theoretically — in a capped (5,5) armchair nanotube.

The discovery of materials where covalently bound C₆₀ molecules exist has attracted great interest both theoretically and experimentally around 1995. Jenő Kürti and Károly Németh performed calculations on negatively charged C₆₀ dimers and reported the optimized geometry and energetics of such materials for the first time. Meanwhile a group of experimentalists lead by László Forró have drawn similar conclusion by analizing the X-ray diffraction spectra of quenched A₁C₆₀ -- the structure of such dimers shows S_C_2h symmetry in agreement with Kürti's theoretical prediction.