On this day, 5 September 1985, fullerenes were generated by scientists for the first time. Robert Curl Jr, Sir Harold Kroto and Richard Smalley were awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their discovery.
Carbon is an element that can assume a number of different forms. In nature, for example, graphite and diamonds appear. In 1985 Harold Kroto, Robert Curl, and Richard Smalley irradiated a surface of graphite with laser pulses so that carbon gas was formed. When the carbon gas condensed, previously unknown structures with 60 and 70 carbon atoms were formed. The most common structure had 60 carbon atoms arranged in a sphere with five and six edges. The structures were called fullerenes in honour of architect Buckminster Fuller, who worked with this geometric shape. The structure is also called Buckminsterfullerene or a Buckyball.
Learn more: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1996/press-release/
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