Fullerenes And Relative Materials

In the period of rapid and intensive development of general electronics, this book entitled Fullerenes and Relative Materials - Properties and Applications is quite systematic and useful. It considers some aspects on synthesis, structural, vibrational, tribology, and optical properties of the fullerenes and relative materials. Some parts of the book present the specific area of the applications of the studied nanostructures. The book contains eight chapters. The special approach and interesting results on the unique properties of the materials studied as well as the different areas of their applications in general optoelectronics, solar energy and gas storage, laser and display, and biomedicine are shown. It is important for education process and for the civil and special device operations.

In the period of rapid and intensive development of general electronics, this book entitled Fullerenes and Relative Materials - Properties and Applications is quite systematic and useful. It considers some aspects on synthesis, structural, vibrational, tribology, and optical properties of the fullerenes and relative materials. Some parts of the book present the specific area of the applications of the studied nanostructures. The book contains eight chapters. The special approach and interesting results on the unique properties of the materials studied as well as the different areas of their applications in general optoelectronics, solar energy and gas storage, laser and display, and biomedicine are shown. It is important for education process and for the civil and special device operations.

The closed-cage carbon molecules known as fullerenes provide an entirely new branch of chemistry, materials science, and physics. Fullerene research is now engaging the frenetic attention of thousands of scientists. Initially, the chemistry was relatively slow to develop due to the low availability of material, and the need for state-of-the-art instrumentation for product analysis. This research area is now very definitely up-and-running, and will soon become the main focus of attention in the fullerene field. The number of published papers already runs into hundreds, and the main features of fullerene reactivity have been established. This book describes all of the known types of reactions as well as the means of production, the purification, and the properties of fullerenes.

Fullerenes and nanotubes are two classes of carbon structures or allotropes, which were discovered about 17 years ago. Since that time, many chemical derivatives have been synthesized using fullerenes and nanotubes as building blocks. Particularly promising was the theory that the chemical properties of fullerenes, and certain derivatives, made them likely candidates for anticancer drugs, inhibitors of viruses such as HIV, or even as anti-bacterials. Their cyctotoxicity can also be controlled by specific circumstances. In addition, the funtionalization of nanotubes has not only produced relatively simple derivatives, but also complex hybrids with biological macromolecules, which show unique supramolecular architecture and which are promising in many medical applications. The application of fullerenes and nanotubes in medicine is at the frontier of our knowledge, thus the work in this field represents the basis for future novel developments.

Until recently, the element carbon was believed to exhibit only two main allotropic forms, diamond and graphite. Research in the US and Europe has now confirmed the existence of a third previously unknown form - buckminsterfullerene (C60) and its relatives, the fullerenes (C24, C28, C32, C70 etc). The story of fullerene chemistry, physics and materials science began in 1985, almost twenty years after the existence of a spherical carbon cluster was first considered. In September 1985 a joint Sussex/Rice Universities team including Kroto, Heath, O'Brien, Curl and Smalley used a powerful mass spectrometric technique to identify the C+60 species, and proposed a spherical structure and the name buckminsterfullerene. It was not, however, until Krätschmer and Huffman reported the isolation of crystals of C60 in 1990 that the closed cage structure of C60 could be confirmed. The Fullerenes documents the work leading up to 1990 and more recent developments in the field of fullerene research and will serve as an indispensible reference tool for all workers in this area.

with contributions by numerous experts