C60: BUCKMINSTERFULLERENE, THE CELESTIAL SPHERE THAT FELL TO EARTH
C60: BUCKMINSTERFULLERENE, THE CELESTIAL SPHERE THAT FELL TO EARTH
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C60：巴克敏斯特富勒烯，坠落到地球的天球
DOI：
10.1002/anie.199201113
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发表时间：
1992
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
H. Kroto
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
H. Kroto
1975-1978年，射电天文学在星际空间寒冷的黑云中惊人地发现了长链聚氰化物HC5N、HC7N和HC9N。随后对其来源的探索表明，它们是从红巨星碳星中被吹出来的。1985年，旨在模拟这类恒星化学性质的碳星团实验证实了这些天体可能是其来源。在这些群集研究中，有一个偶然的发现；一种稳定的纯碳物质C60，在激光聚焦石墨靶产生的混沌等离子体中自发形成。该分子具有封闭的球笼结构，是碳的第三个表征良好的同素异形体，并被命名为巴克敏斯特富勒烯。人们花了五年时间才生产出足够的材料来证明这一猜想的正确性。由于基础研究，化学和材料科学中令人兴奋的、具有重要战略意义的新领域在一夜之间被发现，这可能是一个及时的实物教训，其中许多研究无法吸引到资金支持，所有这些研究都是由对碳在太空和恒星中的作用的迷恋所激发的。在这个帐户，有趣的方面，这一发现，它的起源，它的后续提出。这个故事有很多方面，其中一些与科学发现的方式有关。
In 1975–1978 the long-chained polyynylcyanides, HC5N, HC7N, and HC9N were surprisingly discovered in the cold dark clouds of interstellar space by radioastronomy. The subsequent quest for their source indicated that they were being blown out of red giant, carbon stars. In 1985 carbon-cluster experiments aimed at simulating the chemistry in such stars confirmed these objects as likely sources. During these cluster studies a serendipitous discovery was made; a stable pure-carbon species, C60, formed spontaneously in a chaotic plasma produced by a laser focused on a graphite target. A closed spheroidal cage structure was proposed for this molecule, which was to become the third well-characterized allotrope of carbon and was named buckminsterfullerene. It has taken five years to produce sufficient material to prove the correctness of this conjecture. There may be a timely object lesson in the fact that exciting new and strategically important fields of chemistry and materials science have been discovered overnight due to fundamental research, much of which was unable to attract financial support, and all of which was stimulated by a fascination with the role of carbon in space and stars. In this account, interesting aspects of this discovery, its origins, and its sequel are presented. The story has many facets, some of which relate to the way scientific discoveries are made.