Knowledge Bank

The apparent stability of $C60$ Buckminsterfullerene was originally discovered during a study of the role of carbon chemistry in space and its spheroidal hollow cage structure has now been confirmed by some down-to-earth experiments in the laboratory. It is difficult to accept, but it appears that this third form of carbon has been forming spontaneously under our noses since time immemorial. It is the spontaneous creation of this most beautiful and elusive of species which has major implications for a deeper understanding of the chemical factors governing mechanism in organic chemistry, the morphology of graphitic materials and the composition of circumstellar shells and the interstellar medium. This exciting discovery, which promises major applications in the materiais area, has its origins in a fundametal science programme which involved the detection of long carbon chain molecules in space by radioastronomy and the quest for an understanding of how they came to be there.""