Buckyball variant resembles a volleyball
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.028649
MIT Technology Review : Since the 1985 discovery of the buckyball, a soccer-ball-shaped molecule composed of 60 carbon atoms, researchers have been seeking other interesting structures with unique chemical properties. One method has been to replace some of the carbon atoms with other elements. Now, through the use of computer simulations, Jing Wang at Hebei Normal University in China and colleagues have proposed the most exotic version yet: a fullerene consisting of 60 carbon and 20 scandium atoms. The molecule comprises six subunits “stitched together” to form a cage-like structure resembling a volleyball. The researchers say their volleyballene should be exceptionally stable, even at high temperatures.
