page_title: Buckminsterfullerene
section_title: Solid
hierarchical_section_title: Buckminsterfullerene / Properties / Solid
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: C60 Buckminister Fulleren, kristallin aus der Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck. English: C60 Buckminsterfullerene, crystallized. From the Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck.
context_page_description: Buckminsterfullerene is a type of fullerene with the formula C₆₀. It has a cage-like fused-ring structure that resembles a soccer ball, made of twenty hexagons and twelve pentagons. Each carbon atom has three bonds. It is a black solid that dissolves in hydrocarbon solvents to produce a violet solution. The compound has received intense study, although few real world applications have been found.
context_section_description: In solid buckminsterfullerene, the C₆₀ molecules adopt the fcc (face-centered cubic) motif. They start rotating at about −20 °C. This change is associated with a first-order phase transition to a fcc structure and a small, yet abrupt increase in the lattice constant from 1.411 to 1.4154 nm.
  C
  ₆₀ solid is as soft as graphite, but when compressed to less than 70% of its volume it transforms into a superhard form of diamond (see aggregated diamond nanorod). C
  ₆₀ films and solution have strong non-linear optical properties; in particular, their optical absorption increases with light intensity (saturable absorption).
  C
  ₆₀ forms a brownish solid with an optical absorption threshold at ≈1.6 eV. It is an n-type semiconductor with a low activation energy of 0.1–0.3 eV; this conductivity is attributed to intrinsic or oxygen-related defects. Fcc C₆₀ contains voids at its octahedral and tetrahedral sites which are sufficiently large (0.6 and 0.2 nm respectively) to accommodate impurity atoms. When alkali metals are doped into these voids, C₆₀ converts from a semiconductor into a conductor or even superconductor.
caption: C60 solid
exif: {}