Latest Fullerene Stories

Three U.S. professors have co-invented a remote process for filling hollow carbon molecules called fullerenes with radioactive metals. Virginia Polytechnic Institute Professor Harry Dorn, Emory University and Henry College Professor James Duchamp and Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine Professor Panos Fatouros are the co-inventors of the process that can fill fullerenes with atoms of various metals. Dorn said an important example of the use of the process is a fullerene...

 Virginia Tech chemistry Professor Harry C. Dorn, Emory and Henry College chemistry Professor James Duchamp, and Panos Fatouros, professor and chair of the Division of Radiation Physics and Biology at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine have co-invented a hands-off process for filling fullerenes with radio-active material.Fullerenes are hollow carbon molecules. Dorn has created new materials by filling them with atoms of various metals. An important example is a...

U.S. scientists have formed interconnected carbon nanostructures on graphene substrates in a study that might lead to new carbon-based devices. The researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, Sandia National Laboratories and Rice University said the simple assembly process involves heating few-layer graphene sheets to sublimation using electric current. Curvy nanostructures such as carbon nanotubes and fullerenes have extraordinary properties, the scientists said, but are extremely...

 Engineers from the University of Pennsylvania, Sandia National Laboratories and Rice University have demonstrated the formation of interconnected carbon nanostructures on graphene substrate in a simple assembly process that involves heating few-layer graphene sheets to sublimation using electric current that may eventually lead to a new paradigm for building integrated carbon-based devices.Curvy nanostructures such as carbon nanotubes and fullerenes have extraordinary properties but are...

The discovery of a soccer-ball-shaped molecule made of 60 carbon atoms was a minor revolution in chemistry: Fullerenes are spherical, highly symmetrical molecules made of carbon atoms, and are the third form of carbon after diamond and graphite. However, the C60 "soccer ball" is not the only fullerene by far. Among its less stable relations is the C80 fullerene. There are seven different possible structural forms that have 80 carbon atoms in a symmetrical, spherical arrangement....

This year's model isn't your father's nanocar. It runs cool.The drivers of Rice University's nanocars were surprised to find modified versions of their creation have the ability to roll at room temperature. While practical applications for the tiny machines may be years away, the breakthrough suggests they'll be easier to adapt to a wider range of uses than the originals, which had to be heated to 200 degrees Celsius before they could move across a surface.The nanocar was a sensation when...

After announcing last April a method for growing exceptionally long, straight, numerous and well-aligned carbon cylinders only a few atoms thick, a Duke University-led team of chemists has now modified that process to create exclusively semiconducting versions of these single-walled carbon nanotubes.The achievement paves the way for manufacturing reliable electronic nanocircuits at the ultra-small billionths of a meter scale, said Jie Liu, Duke's Jerry G. and Patricia Crawford Hubbard...

Researchers at Florida State University say a material commonly known as "buckypaper" could revolutionize the way everything from airplanes to TVs are made.Buckypaper, which resembles ordinary carbon paper, is 10 times lighter but potentially 500 times stronger than steel when sheets of it are stacked and pressed together to form a composite. But unlike conventional composite materials, it conducts electricity like copper or silicon and disperses heat like steel or brass."All...

By Joann Loviglio PHILADELPHIA - For anyone whose last foray into chemistry was being forced to memorize the periodic table of elements in high school, there's new reason to take another look at a subject you might have vowed never to revisit after final exams. As chemical and molecular innovations - from nylon to plastic to cosmetics - transformed modern life, genomics and nanotechnology discoveries could dramatically transform the future. The Chemical Heritage Foundation's ambitious...

By JOANN LOVIGLIO By Joann Loviglio The Associated Press PHILADELPHIA For anyone whose last foray into chemistry was being forced to memorize the periodic table of elements in high school, there's new reason to take another look at a subject you may have vowed never to revisit after final exams. As chemical and molecular innovations - from nylon to plastic to cosmetics - transformed modern life, genomics and nanotechnology discoveries could dramatically transform the future. The...