Question

how buckminster fullerence was formed on the earths crust

Answer 1

Buckminster Fullerene is one type of fullerene. Fullerenes are made from carbon atoms joined together to make balls, 'cages' or tubes of carbon. The molecules of Buckminster Fullerene are spherical and are also known as 'buckyballs' – formula C60.

Answer 2

Answer:

Buckminsterfullerene

carbon allotrope

"Buckyball" redirects here. For other uses, see Buckyball (disambiguation).

Buckminsterfullerene is a type of fullerene with the formula C60. It has a cage-like fused-ring structure (truncated icosahedron) that resembles a soccer ball, made of twenty hexagons and twelve pentagons. Each carbon atom has three bonds. It is a black solid that dissolves in hydrocarbon solvents to produce a violet solution. The compound has received intense study, although few real world applications have been found.

Quick Facts: Names, Identifiers ...

Occurrence

Buckminsterfullerene is the most common naturally occurring fullerene. It can be found in small quantities in soot. The molecule has also been detected in deep space. In April 2019, scientists, working with the Hubble Space Telescope, reported the confirmed detection of the large and complex ionized molecules of buckminsterfullerene (C60) in the interstellar medium spaces between the stars.

Synthesis

High-vacuum electrolysis of a C60-fullerene derivative. Slow diffusion into the anode (right side) yields the characteristic purple color of pure C60.

Soot is produced by laser ablation of graphite or pyrolysis of aromatic hydrocarbons. Fullerenes are extracted from the soot with organic solvents using a Soxhlet extractor. This step yields a solution containing up to 75% of C60, as well as other fullerenes. These fractions are separated using chromatography. Generally, the fullerenes are dissolved in a hydrocarbon or halogenated hydrocarbon and separated using alumina columns.

Structure

Buckminsterfullerene is a truncated icosahedron with 60 vertices and 32 faces (20 hexagons and 12 pentagons where no pentagons share a vertex) with a carbon atom at the vertices of each polygon and a bond along each polygon edge. The van der Waals diameter of a C

60 molecule is about 1.01 nanometers (nm). The nucleus to nucleus diameter of a C

60 molecule is about 0.71 nm. The C

60 molecule has two bond lengths. The 6:6 ring bonds (between two hexagons) can be considered "double bonds" and are shorter than the 6:5 bonds (between a hexagon and a pentagon). Its average bond length is 0.14 nm. Each carbon atom in the structure is bonded covalently with 3 others.