I'm wondering buckminsterfullerene could be made synthetically like diamonds. If so how. Diamonds are made by high pressure and heat. There's another way of making diamonds that involves gassing it, I think. How can buckminsterfullerene be made?

I don't know how, but I'd guess you could make buckminsterfullerene - I mean, they make carbon nanotubes, which are essentially the same carbon polymer idea just a different shape.

 

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I think it was originally made by firing a laser into a mixture of carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen gases to produce carbon plasma, which then cooled to form the C60 and C70 balls.

psi20 said in post # :

I'm wondering buckminsterfullerene could be made synthetically like diamonds.

 

The only way we have of making them is by synthesis....

 

http://www.chem.wisc.edu/~newtrad/CurrRef/BDGTopic/BDGtext/BDGBucky.html

 

Only 1, 2, 10 and 11 are really applicable though.

These have been made by heating methane gas so carbonization occurs and these form naturally in small levels.

 

Ag

thanks

Carbon is available in nature as graphite and generally not as diamond. Artificial graphite is made by the reaction of coke with silica (SiO2).

 

SiO2 + 3C (2500°C)------> "SiC"----> Si (g) + C(graphite)

 

Artificial diamonds are made by the application of heat and pressure (> 125 kBar) in the presence of catalyst like fe, cr or pt. The metal melts on the carbon surface, the graphite dissolves in metal film, and the less soluble diamond precipitates out. The presence of nitrogen as an impurity gives yellow diamonds while boron gives bluish colours.

 

buckminsterfullerene is formed in the treatment of graphite by lasers.

buckminsterfullerenes are also known as "bucky balls"

The only way we have of making them is by synthesis....

 

http://www.chem.wisc.edu/~newtrad/CurrRef/BDGTopic/BDGtext/BDGBucky.html

 

Only 1' date=' 2, 10 and 11 are really applicable though.[/quote']

 

 

well, "synthesis" means "making" whether it was artificial or natural

and bucky balls of all sorts are found naturally in soots and cokes

so are nanotubes and other filamentous carbon

 

the easiest way to make buckyballs is by arc discharge between two carbon electrodes in low pressure inert gas, you could do it at home with a bell jar, a tank of helium, a couple of carbon electrodes and an arc welder.

 

 

oh, forgot to mention that if you wanted to purify it you'd need something like a soxhlet extractor and some benzene or toluene