A Missing Link in the Cascade Formation of High Symmetry Fullerene Cages

Published

September 15, 2013

Author(s)

Dan Bearden, Jianyuan Zhang, Harry C. Dorn

Abstract

Before the discovery of graphene, many versions of a “bottom-up” fullerene formation mechanism had been advanced starting with carbide (C2) that forms small carbon cluster chains and rings. However, in recent years evidence is emerging suggesting a “top-down mechanism” that fullerenes are formed via shrinkage of giant fullerenes generated from graphene. Herein, we present the first molecular structural evidence for the top-down mechanism based on the metal carbide metallofullerene, M2C2@C1(51383)-C84 (M=Y,Gd). We suggest that this asymmetric molecule with destabilizing fused pentagons is a missing link in the cascade of fullerene formation. Furthermore, this unusual cage can undergo multiple loss of C2 via well established Stone-Wales transformations to form many well-known high-symmetry fullerene cages and provides an evolutionary pathway from graphene to various fullerene families.

Citation

Journal of the American Chemical Society

Pub Type

Journals

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DOI Link

Keywords

Fullerene, Archaeofullerene, NMR

Citation

Bearden, D. , Zhang, J. and Dorn, H. (2013), A Missing Link in the Cascade Formation of High Symmetry Fullerene Cages, Journal of the American Chemical Society, [online], https://doi.org/10.1038/NCHEM.1748 (Accessed October 18, 2025)