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The smallest fullerene which does not contain any bordering pentagons (which is destabilizing - see pentalene?) is C60, and it is also the best known

What does the phrase does not contain any bordering pentagons mean? Buckyball contains pentagonal carbon rings. And what's the deal with calling them destabilizing--destabilizing compared to what? Are you thinking of the aromatic stabilization of benzene's six-member ring?

According to this, the smallest fullerene known is C20

http://www.slb.com/seed/watch/fullerenes/smallest.htm

Finally, calling C60 the "best known" seems kind of subjective, though it may be true. I think the fact that it might thethe best known or earliest discovered is an interesting comment on the culture of science, perhaps the role of aesthetic imagination and spectroscopic symmetry.

--dja

I changed the text according to most of the above. The comment that neighboring pentagons are destabilizing I left in, though. It means pretty much the opposite of stabilization as applied to benzene, namely that the whole structure is considerably less stable (higher energy) than one would otherwise expect, in this case thanks to bond angle strain. I think this is fairly common usage, but if you think you have a better way of saying the same feel free to change it. -- JG


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Edited July 31, 2001 5:40 am by Josh Grosse (diff)
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