Physics and Chemistry of the Fullerenes

In September 1985, in an attempt to simulate the chemistry in a carbon star, Harry Kroto, Bob Curl and Richard Smalley set up a mass spectrometry experiment to study the plasma produced by focusing a pulsed laser on solid graphite. Serendipitously, a dominant 720 amu mass peak corresponding to a C60 species was revealed in the time-of-flight mass spectrum of the resulting carbon clusters. It was proposed that this C60 cluster had the closed cage structure of a truncated icosahedron (a soccerball) and was named Buckminsterfullerene because geodesic dome concepts, pioneered by the architect Buckminster Fuller, played an important part in arriving at this solution. The signal for a C70 species (840 amu) , proposed to have the ellipsoidal shape of a rugbyball, was also prominent in the early experiments. Five years later, the seminal work of the Sussex! Rice collaboration was triumphantly confirmed as Wolfgang Krlitschmer and Donald Huffman succeeded in producing, and separating, bulk crystalline samples of fullerene material from arc-processed (in an inert gas atmosphere) carbon deposits. From then onwards, fullerene research continued, and still proceeds, at an exhilarating pace. The materials excited the imagination of many diverse classes of scientists, resulting in a truly interdisciplinary field. Many of our old, seemingly well-founded, preconceptions in carbon science had to be radically altered or totally abandoned, as a new round world of chemistry, physics and materials science began to unfold.

Klappentext

The discovery of Csub60/sub and Csub70/sub, icosahedral spherical and ellipsoidal carbon species in September 1985, followed by their successful synthesis in 1990, excited the imagination of many scientists and demanded a radical revision of old, seemingly well-founded preconceptions in carbon science, leading to the institution of a new, multidisciplinary science of chemistry, physics and materials science `in the round'. New, unique carbon materials have been discovered, like the nanotubes, buckyonions and endohedral metallofullerenes; and the fullerenes themselves, and their derivatives, have been found to possess a plethora of interesting properties, ranging from the inhibition of HIV-I protease to superconductivity and ferromagnetism. New and exciting material aplenty, all of which is here expertly reviewed by the founders of the science, as well as its most expert practitioners.

Inhalt
Interstellar Grains and New Forms of Carbon: The Interaction of Two Fields of Science.- Synthesis and Characterization of Carbon Nanotubes.- Laser Desorption of Fullerenes and Hydrogenated Fullerenes.- Competing Factors in Fullerene Stability.- The Structure of Buckminsterfullerene Compounds.- Photophysical, Photochemical, and Chemical Reactions of Fullerenes and Dihydrofullerene Derivatives.- The Addition of Diazo Compounds to C60 as a Way to the Understanding of the Electronic and Magnetic Properties of Fullerenes.- Electronic Spectroscopy and Photophysics of Fullerenes.- The Hyperfine Interactions of Free Radical Adducts of C60.- Physics and Chemistry of Fullerenes from ab initio Molecular Dynamics.- Molecular Structure, Crystal Field and Orientational Order in Solid C60.- Solid State Properties of the C70 Fullerene.- Intercalation Compounds of Solid C60.- Alkali Metal Fullerides: Structural and Electronic Properties in Comparison with Previous Classes of Molecular Conductors.- Electron-Phonon Coupling, Coulomb Pseudopotential µ* and Physical Properties of C60 Compounds.- Vibrational Spectroscopy of Full Erites and Fullerides.- Raman Scattering of Alkali-Metal Fullerides.- Round Table Discussion - Fullerene Chemistry.- Solid State Properties of Fullerenes. Comments from a Round Table Discussion.- Round Table Discussion of Fullerenes in Astrophysics: Summary.