These clusters can generally be regarded as a solid-like species. The structures of the polymers are currently considered to be random. The stereoscopic arrangement of the C 60 molecule in these polymers results in some favorable properties. They can be prepared under very mild conditions at room temperature. Fullerenes have also been placed as end-caps on polymer chains, with the overall effect being a triblock polymer.
Fullerenes have many, many interesting and unique properties besides their fascinating structure.
Research on these relatively new molecules has doubtless just scratched the surface, and practical applications integrating buckyballs should abound in the next few decades as cheaper methods of production are developed. They may well be considered one of the most influential and important advances in chemistry of the twentieth-century. Fullerenes Gain Nobel Stature. Fullerenes at Impact. Geckeler, Kurt and Andreas Hirsch.