This is the presentation about fullerenes, an Carbon allotrope. It includes its structure, properties and Applications

1. Fullerenes
By
Koushik Kosanam
Saud Almotairi

2. Contents
History
Structure
Properties
Applications

3. History
• Popularly known as Buckministerfullerene in honour of the American
architect Buckminister Fuller who designed Geodesic domes.
• With mass spectrometry, discrete peaks were observed corresponding to
molecules with the exact mass of sixty or seventy or more carbon atoms. In
1985, James R. Heath, Robert Curl and Richard Smalley, from Rice
University discovered C60, and shortly thereafter came to discover the
fullerenes.
• Minute quantities of the fullerenes, in the form of C60, C70, C76, and C84
molecules, are produced in nature, hidden in soot and formed by lightning
discharges in the atmosphere.

4. What are they???
 Fullerenes are closed hollow cages consisting of carbon atoms
interconnected in pentagonal and hexagonalrings.
 Carbon atoms are bonded by 2 single bonds and 1 double bond (Sp2
hybridised).
 Every atom is a surface atom.
 They can be spherical, elliptical, or tubular.

5. CHARACTERS DIAMOND GRAPHITE FULLERENES
1. Carbon
Hybridisation
sp³ sp² sp²
2. Overall
Structure
Infinite 3-D lattice Infinite 2-D planar
layers of hexagons
Finite Cncages
3. C-C
Bond length
1.54Å 1.39Å Around 1.403Å and
1.434Å
4. Electrical
Property
Insulator Conductor Insulator
5. Density 3.51gm/cm³ 2.22gm/cm³ 1.72gm/cm³
Comparison of Fullerenes with other allotropes

6. Fullerenes Family
 Megatubes: larger in diameter than nanotubes and
prepared with walls of different thickness; potentially
used for the transport of a variety of molecules of
different sizes
Buckyball: smallest
member is C20 and the
most common is C60.
Nanotubes: hollow
tubes of very small
dimensions, having
single or multiple walls.

7. Each carbon is part of one pentagon and two
hexagons
It contains 12 pentagons and 20 hexagons.
 The pentagonal rings contain only single bonds;
double bonds have
a shorter bond length and lead to instability in the
pentagonal ring.
Yellow bonds- double bonds & red bonds- single
bonds
Two types of bond lengths:
 0.145 +/-0.0015 nm for the bonds between five-
and six-membered rings,
 0.140 +/- 0.0015 nm for the bond between the
six-membered rings.
 Fullerene cages are about 7-15 Å in diameter
and are one carbon atom thick
Bucky balls
C 60 is the most stable and
widely known Bucky ball

8. C 60 Properties
 Fullerenes contain carbon atoms arranged as a combination of 12
pentagonal rings and n hexagonal rings. The chemical formula is C20+2n
 Highest packing density of all known structures.
 Chemically stable
 Very tough and thermally stable
 Impenetrable to all elements under normal circumstances, even to a helium
atom with an energy of 5 eV
 Can be compressed to lose 30% of its volume without destroying its
carbon cage

9. General Physical and Chemical properties
 Soft and slippery
 Cannot conduct electricity
 Insoluble in water
 They do dissolve in organic solvents giving colored solutions.
 The colour depends on the solvent ranging from red to deep purple and
violet.
 They are the only soluble allotrope of carbon.
 Although solid, their melting points are not that high
Average C-C distance 1.44A0
Melting point 2800C
Mass density 1.72g/cm^3
Molecular density 1.44*10^21
Thermal conductivity 0.4W/mK

10. Applications
 As a lubricant due to its spherical structure -the bucky balls act as a
molecular ball bearings
 As a superconductor when mixed with alkali metals
 Used as a soft Ferromagnet
 Used in electronic, microelectronic and non-linear optical devices
 Their hollow structure makes them suitable for drug delivery
purposes and used as anti oxidants in medicines.
 Fullerene molecules have very a high surface area / volume ratio
and may be used in the development of new types of catalysts in the
chemical industry

11. Applications

12. Novel experiments and Applications
 The material can be used to protective gear for soldiers as it is shock resistant and
lightweight.
 Turning fullerene molecules into diamond molecules with a simple rearrangement
of the atoms paving the way for an alternative substitute for diamond films needed
in electronic devices.
 Due to their ability to decrease the transmittance of light, buckminsterfullerene are
able to be used as optical limiters. This means that they are particularly useful for
the development of protective eyewear and optical sensors.
 In a recent study, material developers were able to increase the hardness of the
lightweight Ti-24.4AI-17N alloy by approximately 30% by adding fullerenes.

13. References
 G.KluppS.MargadonnaK.Prassides (2016) Fullerenes, Reference Module
in Materials Science and Materials Engineering
 S.MargadonnaK.Prassides, (2001), Pages 3379-3383, Encyclopedia of
Materials: Science and Technology (Second Edition)
 Paul O’ Brien, University of Manchester et.al (2007), Fullerences
principles and applications, RSC Nano science and Nano technology.
 Hugh 0. Pierson, “HANDBOOK OF CARBON, GRAPHITE, DIAMOND
AND FULLERENES” Properties, Processing and Applications , Noyes
Publications.

14. THANK YOU !!