![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090119052212im_/http://www.er.doe.gov/production/bes/archives/images/dot_clea.gif)
![Basic Energy Sciences](BES_logo_files/BES_logo_sm.jpg)
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What
does the BES "logo" depict? The figure shows the orientation
distribution function - a map of the most probable
locations of the atoms in a solid - of buckminsterfullerene, C60, as determined from neutron
powder diffraction studies* performed at the
ISIS spallation neutron source. This spherical
molecule is the prototypic member of the fullerene family
which is the third known major form of the element carbon. (Updated
on February 24, 2005) |
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What is the BES logo's connection to
Basic Energy Sciences (BES)?
Research supported by BES led to the discovery of
C60, and the BES program
continues to fund a variety of projects involving fullerenes. BES-supported user
facilities are routinely used to characterize the fullerenes and their abundant
derivatives.
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The 1996 Nobel Prize in
Chemistry was awarded to Professors Richard E. Smalley and Robert Curl of Rice
University and to Sir Harry Kroto of the University of Sussex. The award was given for
their discovery of a new allotrope of carbon that consists of 60 carbon atoms, shown at
left, in the shape of a soccer ball. The pure carbon molecule was christened Buckminsterfullerene in
honor of the architect R. Buckminster
Fuller, who achieved fame for his geodesic domes and
other inventions.
The molecule, nicknamed "buckyball," was discovered in
1985 during experiments on carbon clusters in the laboratory of Professor Smalley using a
technique pioneered at Rice University in the early 1980s with support from the
BES/Division of Chemical Sciences. |
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The
structure
and properties of fullerenes and many of their derivatives are determined at the BES
synchrotron radiation sources and neutron scattering facilities. For example, the
structure of C60 was first determined at the National
Synchrotron Light Source at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, New York. |
As opposed to other forms of
carbon, the fullerenes have a well-defined molecular structure with much different
properties than graphite or diamond. An entirely new chemistry has developed to manipulate
the fullerene structure, and novel
substances are produced from these compounds with new and unexpected properties. For
example, BES-supported research has produced superconducting salts of C60, new
three-dimensional polymers, new catalysts, and materials with new electrical and optical
properties. In addition, BES researchers have produced thin carbon tubes with closed ends;
the carbon atoms of these "nanotubes" are connected in the same configuration as
those for the fullerenes.
* The studies to produce the figure in the BES logo are found in
the following journal article:
W. I. F. David, R. M. Ibberson, and T. Matsuo, "High resolution neutron powder
diffraction: a case study of the structure of C60," Proc. Roy. Soc. A 442, 129-146 (1993).
• The report of the discovery of C60
is found in the following journal article:
H. W. Kroto, J. R. Heath, S. C. O'Brien, R. F. Curl, and R. E. Smalley, "C60:
Buckminsterfullerene," Nature 318, 162-163 (1985).
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