MOLECULES: Fullerenes: Buckminsterfullerene, C₆₀ #4

Buckminsterfullerene or Buckyball #4, C₆₀. The carbon atoms are shown as black spheres at their covalent radius (i.e. just touching). They are surrounded by cloudy orange spheres that represent their van der Waals radii. This image is 500 x 500 pixels; the original measures 4,096 x 4,096 pixels.

Buckminsterfullerene is a form (allotrope) of carbon. In this molecule, there are sixty carbon atoms arranged in a sphere (actually at the vertices of a truncated icosahedron). Fullerenes have rather exotic properties and these hollow balls of carbon atoms are likely to have many uses.