Buckyballs get a soft landing

When the 1996 Nobel prize in chemistry went to the discoverers of C₆₀, or ’buckyballs’ as they were affectionately known, the fullerenes suddenly shot to superstar status. And interest in them continues afresh, with researchers in Germany now isolating C₅₈.

Fullerenes with fewer than 60 carbon atoms become increasingly less stable structurally because the classical shape, akin to a soccer ball where pentagons are surrounded by hexagons, is not sustainable and pentagons must sit next to other pentagons.

Using electron impact ionisation, Manfred Kappes and his team gave positive C₅₈ ions a soft landing on a graphite substrate to produce what Kappes proclaims is ’likely the world’s largest sample of pure C₅₈: about 30 nanograms’.

This ion-beam technique will allow Kappes to ’write’ molecules onto surfaces and then investigate their electronic properties with an eye to making new materials.

Katharine Sanderson