FULLERENES

Roberto Bartali

ABSTRACT
Fullerenes are very interesting carbon molecule, they can be made artificially (in
laboratories) and can be found in meteorites and in the interstellar medium. This is a
description of fullerenes, their origin and their applications.

FULLERENE DESCRIPTION
The discovery of fullerene is one of a
long series of discoveries and technological
development driven by astonomical research.
Figure 1
The need to discover why an absorption
line at 210 nm were present in the
interstellas médium and in nebulae,
allowed the production of fullerenes.

H. Kroto (figure 2) from Sussex

University, R. Smalley and R.C. Smalley, in
1985 (Kroto et al 1985), discovered the presence of fullerene when they worked on
experiments aimed to simulate in laboratory conditions under which carbon nucleate, as
it does in red giant star atmosphere (Bleeke 2001); another important, and unknown,
feature was the absorption at 217.5 nm in the
intestellar medium (figure 1), which can now be
explained because of the presence of fullerenes
(Iglesias-Groth 2004).
Figure 2
Dr. Kroto, discoverer of
Carbon is one of the
fullerenes and a model most abundant atoms in the
of the molecula. universe, it forms a very
large quantity (thousands) of
compounds, but there are only four types of pure
carbon molecule (figure 3): graphite, fullerene, diamond and ceraphite also known as
chaoite. All fours are present in nature and are found in meteorites, so they were formed
before or during the formation of planets in our solar system.
Fullerenes were first discovered in Allende carcbonaceous chondrite, which
contains also nanodiamonds,
chaoite was found in Ries meteor
crater; graphite is present also in
chondrites.
The differences between
them are the number of atoms, the
way they are bonded together and
the crystallization form (they are
the only 4 known carbon

Figure 3
Crystal structure of different
carbon molecule.
allotropes). This fact is interesting because carbon can produce the hardest material
know (diamond) and one of the softest (chaoite). Fullerene and diamond are three
dimensional molecule, instead graphite is a set of superimposed planar molecule and
chaoite are crystals bonded to the edges of graphite. A special case of a cylindrical
fullerene is called nanotube.
A Graphite molecule is
composed of a set of hexagons
and it is planar, instead all
others allotropes are formed
by other geometric figures like
pentagons and heptagons; all
four carbon molecule can also
be made in laboratory.
A Fullerene can be
dissolved in common solvents
at room temperature.
There are a large
Figure 4 Figure 5
Structure of a C60 carbon Structure of a 540 carbon quantity of fullerene
molecula. atoms arranged as a molecule, the smallest one
fullerene molecula. contains 20 atoms of carbon
(C20) arranged to form exclusively pentagons.
Natural most common fullerene is C60 (figure 4), in which the atoms are
arranged in hexagons and pentagons forming a sphere similar to a soccer ball; but it can
be formed by several hundreds of atoms (figure 5). Technically speaking, the structure
of a fullerene is a truncated icosahedron.
An important and
Figure 6 interesting feature of
A nested fullerene fullerenes is that they can
formed by a C540,
a C240 and a C60. grow as nested units (figure
6). This is, a fullerene inside
another (up to 100 possible shells) with a separation
between them of 3.4 angstrom which is the distance
between sheets of graphite. This molecule are more
stable and shows that atoms or other molecule can
be carried inside them, so, also due to their stability,
they may travel intact during millions of years. This
kind of fullerenes are commonly known as
buckyonion.

FULLERENES IN METEORITES AND INTER STELLAR MEDIUM (ISM)

Noble gases encapsulated into fullerenes show isotopic ratios not corresponding
to Earth atmosphere condition, so they were delivered by meteorites, evidences of this
are in Allende, Tagish lake and Murchison meteorites (Pizzariello 2001)(figure 7), in
the K/T boundary layer and in the P/T layer (even if in much less amount) (Becker et al
2001).
During the AGB phase of the life of a star, they expell large quantities of
Carbon, most of it in CO and C2H2 forms (Kimura 2006). It is though that carbon
derivative compounds like PAH and fullerenes are derived from CO and C2H2 molecule
due to their high stability. Titanium, Zirconium and Molibdenum carbides crystals are
found in the core of graphitic spherule, this imply that they formed before the carbon
based case.

Figure 7
Abundance of fullerenes found in Tagish lake and Murchison chondrites meteorites,
measured by Laser Desorption Mass Spectrometry (LDMS) technique.

FULLERENES IN GEOLOGY RECORDS

High abundance of iridium and the pesence of fullerenes (Parthasarathy et al) in
sediment layers associated to known large meteoritic impacts, suggest that fullerenes are
not a byproduct of volcanism, but they are left by an extraterrestrial carrier (meteorites).
The best evidence of this is that the concentration of iridium in layers associated with
volcanism, above and below the K/T boundary in the Anjar volcano-sedimentary
sequence, is much lower that that of the K/T layer. Iridium is generated during the
impact phase.
Fullerenes with trapped argon and helium showed to be extraterrestrial due to
the isotope ratios measured, that resembles that’s of carbonaceous chondrites. These
fullerenes are present not only in meteorites such the Allende and Murchison, but even
in rocks, specially those corresponding to geologic time coincident to large mass
extinction. This is the case of the Permian-Triassic (Becker et al 2001) extinction
occurred 251 million years ago (figure 8) and the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction about
65 million years ago. These extinction occurred during a very short period of time,
consistent to a catastrophic phenomenon like a giant meteorite impact (an asteroid or a
cometary nucleous about 9 km diameter).
Poreda, following the hypothesis that noble gasses are carried inside fullerenes
and then (Poreda 2001) delivered by carbonaceous chondrites, analized gasses in
samples of Murchison, Allende and Tagish meteorites. The abundance of Xe, Ne, Ar
and Kr are very similar with planetary gas ratios, so this is an important evidence that
fullerenes can trap, transport, and retain other atoms without react with them.
 Becker and Poreda share many papers on this argument, and an important
consecuence of their studies is that (Becker et al 2005) fullerenes and noble gases are
formed in carbon rich stars. Gasses are trapped into fullerenes and then accumulated in
the solar nebula prior to
the solar system
formation. This imply that
the origin and the true
nature of terrestrial
planetary atmospheres is
presolar.
Heymann (Heymann et al
2002 and 2003) are on the
opposite side, they say
that fullerenes are
produced on Earth by
biologic activity because
most of them are not
recognized to be of
extraterrestrial origin.
They though that PAH are
the precursor molecule for
Figure 8
fullerenes. PAH, in mildly
Fullerenes found in the Sasayama sediments aged 251 reducing conditions in contact
million years old (Permian Triassic Boundary). with sulfur (from bacterial
activity, wheatering and
degradation of biologic matter) and heat, can be trimmerized asymmetrically around one
of the trhee pentagons, forming bowl shaped intermediate molecule.

OTHER APPLICATIONS OF FULLERENES

In medicine, many applications are under study. The Fullerene molecule is large,
stable and hydrophobic, so it can be used as a carrier for active substances. It is also an
empty molecule, so it can easily carry substances inside. Another example, is as a direct
attack to diseases (Bleeke 2001) one possible use is as an inhibitor of the enzyme of
VIH.
In semiconductor and computer industry (Benjamin 2005), fullerenes can be
used to reduce size and increasing the commutation speed of transistors, fullerenes
doped with other atoms, show superconducting properties at relatively high
temperature.
Due to their spherical form, they can be used also as lubricants.

REFERENCES:
Becker et al, IMPACT EVENT AT THE PERMIAN-TRIASSIC BOUNDARY:
EVIDENCE FROM EXTRATERRESTRIAL NOBLE GASES IN FULLERENES,
Science, 2001, 2001Sci...291.1530B.

Becker et al, THE ROLE OF FULLERENES IN THE NATURE OF PLANETARY

ATMOSPHERES, American Geophysical Union, 2005, 2005AGUFM.P51A0905B.

Becker L., Poreda R., FULLERENE AND MASS EXTINCTIONS IN THE

GEOLOGIC RECORD, 2001, Meteoritical Society Meeting.
Poreda R., Becker L., FULLERENE AND THE NATURE OF PLANETARY
ATMOSPHERES, 2001, 64th Annual Meteoritical Society Meeting.

Becker L., Poreda R., PLANETARY GASES AND FULLERENES AT THE

PERMIAN-TRIASSIC BOUNDARY, 2001, Lunar and Planetary Science XXXII.

Heymann D., ARE BIOGENIC PAHs PRECURSORS FOR FULLERENES ON

EARTH?, 2002, Lunar and Planetary Science XXXIII.

Heymann et al, BIOGENIC FULLERENES?, International Journal of Astrobiology,

Vol. 2, 2003.

Rietmeijen et al, REVISITING C60 FULLERENE IN CARBONACEOUS

CHONDRITES AND INTERPLANETARY DUST PARTICLES: HRTEM AND
RAMAN MICROSPECTROSCOPY, 2005, Lunar and Planetery Sciences.

Benjamin et al, TOWARDS A FULLERENE-BASED QUANTUM COMPUTER,

2005, arXiv:quant-ph/0511198 v1 21, 2005.

Dimitrijevic M. S., FULLERENES AND ASTRONOMY, 2005, Proc IV Serbian-

Bulgarian Astronomical conference.

Iglesias-Groth S., FULLERENES AND BUCKYONIONS IN THE

INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM, 2004, ApJ 608:L37–L40, 2004.

Matsuda J., Omori H., THE TRAPPING EFFICIENCY OF HELIUM IN

FULLERENE AND ITS IMPLICATION TO THE PLANETARY SCIENCE,
2004, Workshop on Chondrites and Protoplanetary Disk.

Kimura Y., Nuth A., NEW FORMATION ROUTE FOR CARBIDE-CORE,

GRAPHITIC-CARBON MANTLE GRAINS BASED ON FULLERENES, 2006,
Lunar and Planetary Science XXXVII.

Parthasarathy et al., NATURAL FULLERENES FROM THE K/T BOUNDARY

LAYER AT ANJAR, KUTCH, INDIA, Catastrophic Events Conference.

Pizzariello S. et al, THE ORGANIC CONTENT OF THE TAGISH LAKE

METEORITE, Science 293, 2236, 2001.

Fullerene structure library,

http://www.chem.sunysb.edu/msl/fullerene.html

Bleeke J.R., Frey R., Fullerene science module, 2001,

http://www.chemistry.wustl.edu/~edudev/Fullerene/fullerene.html

Periodic table of elements, 2003,

http://www.radiochemistry.org/periodictable/elements/6.html
Kroto, H. W., Heath, J. R., O’Brien, S. C., Curl, R. R., & Smalley, R. E. 1985,
Nature, 318, 162.

IMAGE CREDITS
Figure 1
Absorption line.
http://www.univie.ac.at/spectroscopy/fks/forschung/ergebnisse/fullerene.htm
Figure 2
Dr. H. Kroto.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40577000/jpg/_40577211_harry_kroto203.jpg
Figure 3
Carbon molecule structures.
http://www.mrsec.wisc.edu/Edetc/IPSE/educators/activities/carbon.html
Figure 4
C60 molecula.
http://people.umass.edu/jtchen/research/nanograndpa.htm
Figure 5
C540 molecula.
http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/9/95/250px-Fullerene_c540.png
Figure 6
Nested fullerenes.
http://www.3dchem.com/moremolecules.asp?ID=218&othername=Nested%20Fullerene
Figure 7
Fullerenes in meteorites (Pizzariello et. Al, Science 293, 2001).
http://www.sciencemag.org.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/cgi/reprint/293/5538/2236.pdf
Figure 8
Fullerenes in geologic records.
http://www.sciencemag.org.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/cgi/reprint/291/5508/1530.pdf