Bucky Balls

Discussion in 'General Science & Technology' started by Enigma'07, Jun 26, 2004.

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  1. Enigma'07 Who turned out the lights?!?! Registered Senior Member

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    I know that they are a group of 60 carbon atoms, but what else? What is their purpose? What do they do?
     
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  3. skyederman Registered Senior Member

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    You can get C70, C76, C78 and C84 ones too. They have some interesting properties, the funniest being that you can trap metal ions inside them. You can also perform addition reactions on them, halides, oxides, alkyls, Diels Alder type reactions, and attach metal ions. Attaching alkyl chains can be used to link the fullerene to other molecules, I saw a model of an artificial photosynthesis that used a fullerene attached to one end to seperate the charges. Attached metals ions can make them ferromagnetic and superconducting at low temperatures. Anyways I think they are more of a curio, the nanotubes probably more important because of their material properties. But I really don't know much about either.
     
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  5. apendrapew Oral defecator Registered Senior Member

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    I read about those in Nanocosm, a book by William Illsey Atkinson. Pretty sweet book, I thought. Anyway. I heard they're going to be used a lot in medicine in the somewhat near future. Bind to certain chemicals to take them to where they need to be.
     
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  7. ElectricFetus Sanity going, going, gone Valued Senior Member

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    If you attach a fluoride atoms to the outside you can make the worlds most slippery substance.
     
  8. Mr. Chips Banned Banned

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    I was intrigued recently by the mention of bucky balls being the source of high strength fibers for making ropes and cables, in the context of what I was researching, space elevator cables. Now I see that actually these things are called bucky tubes which are basically bucky balls with belts that keep them aligned as nanotubes. I think the uses will be tremendous. Light weight and a hundred times stronger than steel, the uses may be endless. I found the following interview interesting, http://www.esi-topics.com/nano/interviews/Richard-Smalley.html

    Bucky balls themselves, I see mention to all that folks have already discussed here and also that it is very early in the game to know where and how they may find use.
     
  9. RawThinkTank Banned Banned

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    How big can BB be built ?

    skyederman
    Where to get the info on it ? is C84 the biggest ?
     
  10. ElectricFetus Sanity going, going, gone Valued Senior Member

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    a few nm wide.
     
  11. skyederman Registered Senior Member

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    I got most of that info from an inorganic chemistry textbook, but you can find more from the net, especially about new research.

    I'm not sure if any have been isolated that are larger than C84 but I'm sure that there would be larger ones possible. The problem is that the larger they are, the less likely that they are to form.
     
  12. apendrapew Oral defecator Registered Senior Member

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    As it turns out, bucky balls may be central to the nanotechnology revolution. Although when exposed to heat or light in the presence of oxygen they may explode, engineers and scientists are finding the many possible uses for this molecule. They (I forget which nanotech company) found out it makes a very good semiconductor when twisted, which could theoretically result in a very large scale integration processor a square centimeter in area while containing trillions of transistors. Think of that.. going from silicon to carbon. I think they're even on the same period on the periodic chart.

    Anyway, they're also going to be used in building super high strength and lightweight materials. Mainly cables. Much stronger than spider silk.
     
  13. Blazin_billy Registered Senior Member

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    they also would make super fast and effecient ball bearings. These things can rotate like a couple thousand times a second! They have also created Baby Balls which are just smaller than the average 60 carbon atom link.
     
  14. Q_Goest Registered Senior Member

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    The most fascinating thing I've seen them used for (C70 molecules) was an experiment by Dr. Marcus Arndt, et al. By firing them at a diffraction grating under special conditions, he showed they could go into a state of quantum superposition and create a interference pattern per quantum theory. Note also they were fired one at a time.

    So here you have C70 molecules that have essentially taken 2 seperate routes from one point to another. The work was done in the late '90's and written up in Nature and other journals.
     
  15. mir Registered Member

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    Some facts about Buckyballs

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    The easiest BB to produce is C60. C70, the most common one, look like an american football (elliptic ball). We can produce BB by irridiate graphite with a laser to about 10 000 degrees Celsius. BB are soluble in non-polar solutions, like hexane. They dont conduct current, although the pack together like atoms in metal. BB sublimes, wich witness about weak intermolecular forces. They are all black solids, but often form colorful solutions. All BB absorb light, transferring the energy to heat. Thats why they are used in sunglasses etc.
     
    Last edited: Jul 11, 2004
  16. RawThinkTank Banned Banned

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    BB Anti Gravity Substance ?

    What if I create a Huge BB, so huge that the total atomic mass per volume becomes way too less compared to hydrogen as there will be nothing in this huge BB ?
     
  17. ElectricFetus Sanity going, going, gone Valued Senior Member

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    sorry the bigger you make it the weaker it gets, eventually it will collapse or be pores resulting in no bouncy.
     
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