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Discovery of Fullerenes

Location: Houston, TX, USA
Date: 1985
Category:
Creator(s): Curl, Robert , Kroto, Harold

In early September 1985, a team of scientists discovered a previously unknown pure carbon molecule, C60, which they dubbed buckminsterfullerene. The name was chosen because the geodesic domes of Buckminster Fuller provided a clue that the molecule’s atoms might be arranged in the form of a hollow cage. The structure, a truncated icosahedron with 32 faces, 12 pentagonal and 20 hexagonal, has the shape of a soccer ball. Nicknamed buckyballs, this first known stable molecular form of carbon not only opened up a new field of organic chemistry but also, through the development of carbon nanotubes, a new field of materials science. In 1996, Robert Curl, Harold Kroto, and Richard Smalley won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of the fullerenes.

Tags: Era: 1980-1989
Innovation designated by:
Discovery of Fullerenes
Courtesy Wikipedia/Itamblyn (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Buckminsterfullerene C60 is an example of a structure in the fullerene family.
Address:
Rice University
Houston, TX, USA

Rice University

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