Why is fullerene in considered an insulator if it has free electrons ?
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Answer:
Why is fullerene 60 an insulator while graphite is a conductor? Graphite is good conductor of electricity because one carbon atom is bonded only three carbon atoms, which enables the presence of free electrons
Answer:
The sheets in graphene basically extend all through the entire material; you essentially have one macroscopic orbital going from one side of a pencil to the other. Push an electron in on one side and one will come out on the other. Great.
In fullerene, however, you have distinct little footballs that are just lying next to each other. You can easily push electrons around within one football, but it’s hard to get them moving between footballs. You would need to push them from one end of your material to the other, though; so it doesn’t help that they happily circle their football.