Buckyball: Another Carbon Marvel
Buckyball also called fullerene after its discoverer was accidently discovered while doing some research work. It was found to contain 60 atoms of carbon arranged in the form of a soccer ball. The bonding between all the carbon atoms satisfied the typical carbon bonding that is four bonds linked each atom to another either by a single bond or a double bond.
Diamond and graphite are the two forms of carbon generally found in nature along with other forms like soot and coal. The structure of these was known from a long time but none had a C60 bonding as seen in the Buckyball when it was discovered. This explained to some extent why certain properties of carbon were not satisfied when taking into consideration the structure based on graphite and diamond.
In actuality Buckyball is made artificially and it is in the shape of a ball the carbon bonds forming single and double bonds so that each carbon atom of the 60 atom molecule satisfies the bonding of four. This makes the bonding quite strong and is found to be stable too. This substance is found to occur naturally in the stars however and this leads to the theory that it may have been found in abundance on earth when life was formed here.
A lot of research work on this quarter century old discovery is still required to find more applications of it. Buckyball is used to make some desktop or office toys which can be molded into different shapes and this acts as a stress reliever. This way efficiency in work can be increased bringing more profit for less effort.
The properties of Buckyball are still amazing mankind and many other properties of this form of carbon is yet unknown and once discovered after intense research work in this field it is going to amaze us more. Each molecule has 12 pentagons and 20 hexagons arranged in symmetry and each molecule has 60 carbon atoms and these atoms are bound to each other in the form of a soccer ball.
This shape and structure are the causes for its property of being highly resistant to collision of high speed. Also being a spheroid in shape there is a high potential of adding some other elements into its hollow and enhancing its properties so that it can be used for some useful purposes for mankind like that in medicine. A few applications are on experimental basis and there is scope for more research work to make its use more common and useful to mankind and the earth at large.
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