In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

© 19961SAST EDll'ORIAL A Fuller Bridge 1:e discovery of the sphere-like Coo buckminsterfullerene molecnle, followed by the emergence of the whole new discipline offullerene chemistry, provides an opportunity to lessen the separation of the ''Two Cultures" of scientists and humanists described by C.P. Snow [1]. The drama of the discovery and the magnificent simplicity of the structure attract the attention not only of chemists and other scientists but of non-scientists as well. Both the story and the structure are rich in cultural implications. During an experiment involving the use of laser beams to evaporate graphite in early September 1985, a group of scientists at Rice University in Houston, TexasHarry Kroto, Rick Smalley, Bob Curl-and their students identified a set of conditions in which the C60 species could be produced in an incredibly high abundance relative to any other cluster. The extraordinary stability of the Coo molecule prompted the researchers to lookfor the structural reason for its formation. They first came to the conclusion that it must be a closed-cage structure. Having known this much, they should have recognized that its shape must be that of the truncated Fig. 1. Leonardo da Vinci's truncated icosahedron, drawn for Luca Pacioli's De Divina Pro/1ortione. LEONARDO, Vol. 29, No.1, pp. 1-3, 1996 1 2 Editorial icosahedron, one of the 13 Archimedean polyhedra. Instead, the scientists were merely searching for a sphere-like structure composed mostly of same-size regular hexagons, based on the graphite sheets. They remembered, however, the structure of the U.S. pavilion at Montreal's Expo '67, which led them to the works of Buckminster Fuller. Working with models, they finally came to the conclusion that the structure of the molecule consists of 12 regular same-size pentagons and 20 regular same-size hexagons. The route to the discovery thus was connected in the researchers' minds to Fuller's name and they named the new molecule buckminsterfullerene [2]. This is a rather long name for a relatively simple compound. However, any systematic name would be even longer. It is also a respectable name for an important molecule, whereas other suggested names-such as footballene, soccerene, buckyball and the like-sounded too playful (the official soccer ball consists of the same number and form of patches as the truncated icosahedron). Buckminsterfullerene is the third modification of carbon to be discovered (after graphite and diamond), and nature seems to have kept it secret for a long time. An avalanche of similar all-carbon molecules, all belonging to the fullerene family, and technically as many new modifications of carbon, have become known to exist. One of the most intriguing features of fullerene chemistry is that metal atoms can get inside the C60 ball-requiring that a new designation be devised to describe this mode offorming chemical associations. Thus, for example, the buckminsterfullerene molecule containing a lanthanum atom within it is designated as La@C60 • Another interesting feature of this discovery was that it resulted from a lucky crossing of two separate lines of research. In one, Kroto had been looking for molecules of interstellar space-for him, the laser-beam method of evaporating graphite served to mimic the interstellar conditions that are thought to lead to the formation of new species. In the other, Smalley had built a sophisticated apparatus in which loosely bound groups of atoms, called clusters, were formed and observed. The graphiteevaporation experiment combined their experience and interests and brought cluster physics and astrophysics together in a chemical exercise. Their experiment, however, was not the first of its kind. About a year earlier, another group in a similar experiment had detected and published their research on the products of graphite evaporation by laser beam. Although the relative abundance of C60 was not so striking as in the Houston experiment, again, in hindsight, it should have been noticed. Not only was it not noticed by the researchers who produced the data, but the readers of the prestigious journal where the report had appeared did not notice it either [3]. When the report of the Houston group was published, it generated interest, but the real landslide of a new chemistry started when...

pdf

Share