The Third Allotrope of Carbon: Fullerene an Update
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International Journal of ChemTech Research CODEN( USA): IJCRGG ISSN : 0974-4290 Vol.5, No.1, pp 167-171, Jan-Mar 2013 The Third Allotrope of Carbon: Fullerene an Update Shiv Bhadra Singh*, Aaditya Singh Faculty of Pharmacy, Aryakul college of Pharmacy and Research Lucknow, India. *Corres.author: [email protected] Abstract: There were only three known forms or allotropes of carbon molecules - diamonds (tetrahedral arrangement which is the strongest making it a very hard substance), graphite or pencil lead (lattice sheets) and soot or charcoal which has no crystalline structure. The newly discovered allotrope of carbon i.e, fullerene family, are extremely useful in modern as well as biological applications such as nanotechnology, electronics, architecture, construction, optics, enzyme inhibition, antiviral activity, DNA cleavage, photodynamic therapy, electron transfer, and other in vitro and in vivo biological effects. Fullerenes are graphitic cage structures incorporating exactly twelve pentagons and undergo various chemical reactions. This review deals with various progresses in studies of fullerenes and their applications. Keywords: Third Allotrope, Carbon: Fullerene. Introduction The discoveries of single-walled carbon nanotubes 1 have provided the opportunity to study their Ever since their experimental discovery in 1985, mechanical, optical and electronic properties. fullerenes have attracted considerable attention in Specifically, their electronic characteristics are different fields of sciences. The keen interest in predicted to vary depending upon the nanotube fullerenes is due to much of unusal physical and symmetry and diameter, thus giving either metallic chemical properties as well as diversity of their or semiconducting behaviour. It is very important behavior at various conditions. The discovery and for the creation of novel materials for availability in large quantity of fullerenes have nanoengineering. stimulated their extensive research in a wide variety Various extraction and chromatographic techniques of fields such as physics, chemistry, material are currently employed for the isolation of fullerenes science, biology etc. Their unique carbon cage because of their immense applications in various structure coupled with immense scope for fields.5,6 derivatization makes fullerenes a potential 2 therapeutic agent. Initially fullerenes are viewed as Fullerenes include - aromatic and quite chemically inert molecules, Fullerenes: The classical definition of a fullerene is a fullerenes can actually undergo various chemical compound composed solely of an even number of reactions3 such as nucleophilic addition, Diel’s carbon atoms which form a cage-like fused-ring Alder reaction, 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition, radical polycyclic system with 12 five-membered rings and addition, oxidation, reduction etc. the rest six-membered rings; the archetypal example Various solvent free mechanochemical reactions of is the 60-atom structure, where the atoms and bonds fullerenes have also been investigated. Most of the delineate a truncated icosahedron. However, the studied mechanochemical reactions of fullerenes term has been broadened to include any closed-cage were done by high energy high speed vibration structure having 20 or more carbon atoms consisting milling technique (HSVM), and many fewer entirely of 3 coordinate carbon atoms. reactions were done by low energy ball milling and hand grinding.4 Shiv Bhadra Singh et al /Int.J.ChemTech Res.2013,5(1) 168 Fulleranes: Fulleranes are fully saturated fullerenes, Kekulé structure count, the graph independence for example, the hydrocarbon C60H60. number, the number of spanning trees, the Fulleroids: Heterofullerenes, norfullerenes, combinatorial curvature, the bipartivity measure of homofullerenes, and secofullerenes have been called fullerene graphs, the occurrence number of different fulleroids (fullerene-like) because they resemble structural motifs in fullerenes. fullerenes in structure but do not conform to the In the majority of cases, for the stability prediction definition of a fullerene as given above. It is of lower fullerene isomers Cn with n ≤ 70 the convenient to refer to them as fulleroids and name pentagon adjacency index NP (the so-called them as modified fullerenes. minimal-NP criterion) is used and according to the minimal-NP rule it is supposed that fullerenes which Nomenclature minimize NP are more likely to be stable than those The general problem of fullerene nomenclature has that do not. Consequently, it is believed that the been first considered by R. Taylor. He proposed the buckminsterfullerene is the most stable C60 numbering of atoms in those fullerene isomer that fullerene, because this is the only one for which NP 13,14 were isolated so far. However the proposal was has a minimum value (NP = 0). intended mainly to bring some order into naming fullerene derivatives which were being produced at Types of fullerene an increasing rate. An approved IUPAC Structural variations on fullerenes have evolved well recommendations for naming and numbering the beyond the individual clusters themselves. Examples C60-Ih and C70-D5h(6) fullerenes and their derivatives include- was prepared in year 2002. There are two system for naming- a) Buckyball clusters: smallest member of these a) Systematic names The recommended groups include C20 and the most common is C60. systematic names for the icosahedral C60 and the b) Nanotubes: hollow tubes of very small D5h(6)-C70 fullerenes are (C60-Ih)[5,6]fullerene dimensions, having single or multiple walls. and (C70-D5h(6))[5,6]fullerene. The parenthetical c) Megatubes: larger in diameter than nanotubes prefix gives the carbon content and the point and prepared with walls of different thickness. group symbol; and the bracketed numbers d) Polymers: two-dimensional and three- indicate the ring sizes in the fullerene. The latter dimensional polymers are formed under high- is important in fullerenes with rings other than pressure high-temperature conditions. five- and six-membered. The subscript e) Nano"onions": spherical particles based on parenthetical (6) following the point group multiple carbon layers surrounding a buckyball symbol D5h in the latter name indicates that the core; proposed for lubricants. five-membered ring on the five-fold symmetry f) Linked "ball-and-chain" dimers: two buckyballs axis is surrounded by six-membered rings. This linked by a carbon chain. differentiates this fullerene from an isomeric g) Fullerene rings.15 (C70-D5h)[5,6]fullerene, which has five- membered rings surrounding the five-membered Structure ring on the five-fold symmetry axis, which Carbon bonds undergo catenation and give rise to would have the name (C70-D5h(5))[5,6]fullerene. different shapes, demonstrating different properties. This technique is being further evaluated to One of the famous substances containing carbon is determine its value for differentiating among diamond, a carbon allotrope, the bounds form an other fullerenes with degenerate point group inflexible three-dimensional lattice, and this unique symbols. shape accounts for the strength displayed by b) Trivial names The names [60-Ih]fullerene and diamond. Another carbon allotrope is graphite, in [70-D5h]fullerene given in the IUPAC which carbon atoms are planimetrically arranged but Preliminary Survey are names first introduced are stacked in layers. The third carbon allotrope is into the literature for the C60-Ih and C70-D5h(6) fullerene, it is a family of caged compounds fullerenes. Since important structural composed of only carbon elements. A fullerene Cn information is omitted from these names, they consists of 12 pentagonal rings16 and any number of are to be considered as trivial names to be used 7-12 hexagonal ones, m, such that m = (Cn – 20)/2 only for these specific compounds. (Euler’s Theorem)17 linked together to form a Classification geodesic dome. Structure of these fullerenes Several topological descriptors have been proposed resembles as a soccer ball and the typical diameter to evaluate and classify the topological structure of of a fullerene molecule is 0.7 nm.18 fullerene isomers: the pentagon adjacency index NP, the Wiener index WI, the resistance distance RT, the Shiv Bhadra Singh et al /Int.J.ChemTech Res.2013,5(1) 169 Fig- Allotropes of carbon a) Diamond b) Graphite c) Lonsdaleite d) C60 (e) C540 f) C70 g) Amorphous carbon h) single-walled carbon nanotube Solubility A deeper understanding of the interaction of Chemical properties fullerenes with various solvents will allow rational At an early stage of investigations it was supposed choice of solvents capable of purifying fullerenes by that fullerenes ought to be chemically inactive and cheaper and scalable methods. relativity stable. However it has been later proved that fullerenes participate in various chemical Solubility of fullerenes in various solvents-19 reactions. Fullerenes are also proved to be strong Solvent Solubility acceptor of electrons in presence of many organic (mg/ml) and inorganic donors. There chemical activity results n-pentane 0.005 from an easy breakage of one of the double bond. In n-hexane 0.043 later experiments a way to break single bond has Cyclohexane 0.036 been found thus allowing preparation of various Choloroform 0.16 types of C60 adducts compound. Regioselective Dichloromethane 0.26 formation of multiple adducts has allowed study of 1,2-dibromomethane 0.50 the changes in chemical and physical properties that Methanol 0.000 occur when the conjugated fullerene chromophore