Fullerenes

STRUCTURE AND PROPERTIES OF FULLERENES Chapter 1: Introduction History of Fullerenes The discovery of fullerenes and its structural elucidation paved the way for defining fullerene graphs. The discovery of fullerenes is attributed to the contribution of the Nobel laureates Harold Kroto, Robert Curl, and Richard Smalley [4; Section 1]. These scientists discovered a novel allotrope of carbon in which the carbon atoms formed close shells. The first fullerene molecule (C60 structure consisting of 60 carbon atoms) represented a football or a dome-like structure [4; Section 1]. Moreover, this new allotrope mimicked an icosahedra structure called “Buckminsterfullerene.” Buckminsterfullerene was named after the renowned architect Buckminster Fuller who was known for designing geodesic domes during the 1960’s [1; Section 1]. However, the chemical properties of fullerenes and C60s became evident after the contributions of W. Kratschmer and D. Huffman. For the first time, Kratschmer and Huffman produced isolable amounts of C60 by their famous graphite experiments [1; Section 1]. The authors extracted the carbon condensates burning graphite rods in an atmosphere of helium. These carbon condensates were none other than fullerenes [1; Section 1]. Such discoveries formed the roadmap for unraveling the chemistry of fullerenes [1; Section 1]. Fullerene Chemistry and its Association with Graph theory The establishment of C60 structures and the genesis of fullerene chemistry raised significant interests in fullerene graphs. Most of the…

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