THE CHEMICAL-PROPERTIES OF BUCKMINSTERFULLERENE (C-60) AND THE BIRTH AND INFANCY OF FULLEROIDS

While molecular materials based on the chemical reduction of buckminsterfullerene (C60) have captured the limelight of the popular press and the scientific literature as well as the imagination of chemists and physicists, 1 the chemical derivatization of the fullerenes has been an equally intense area of active research.2-8 Early clues to the reactivity of the fullerenes C60 and C70 came from results of cyclic voltammetry studies9-11 which showed that the two fullerenes were actually mild oxidizing agents. This observation was in accord with the theoretically determined low-lying LUMO orbitals12 of C60 but did not provide a microscopic, structureproperty relationship picture of the origin of the high electron affinity of the molecule. © 1992, American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.