Bucky Balls

Bucky Balls Buckyballs is a specific form of Fullerene’s which is a family of carbon allotropes composed completely of carbon. Buckyballs were the first fullerene that was discovered. They were discovered in 1985 – from an experiment in space, on carbon molecules forming C60 which was named “buckyballs”. It wasn’t until 1991 that buckyballs science came into its own.

The buckyballs is a hollow cluster of 60 carbon atoms shaped like a soccer ball. It is the, roundest most symmetrical molecule known to man.  The buckyballs are named after R. Buckminister Fuller an American architect who designed a geodesic dome with the same fundamental symmetry.  This was the 3rd form of carbon “ fullerene” that until 1985 wasn’t known. The 3 major forms of Carbon are, graphite, diamond and fullerene, with buckyballs being one of a number of fullerenes.  C60 is resistant to shock and it shows promise as a lubricant and many other applications.

The discovery of this curious molecule and its cousins occurred during the course of fundamental experiments, which were aimed at understanding how long-chain molecules are formed in outer space. These discoveries are reminders to us that fundamental science is often the basis for whole new areas of advanced technology in ways that are completely unpredictable and unexpected.

Investigators soon found as a result of the discovery of C60 a whole family of related molecules, including C70, C84 and other "fullerenes" some clusters as small as C28 and as large as a postulated C240. These unique molecules turn out to have extraordinary chemical and physical properties, which react with elements from across the periodic table as well as with the chemical species known as free radicals. Free radicals are key to the polymerization processes that are widely used in industry, which opens up the fullerenes to the manipulative magic of organic chemists.