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Playing with the Soccer Ball-an Experimental Introduction to Fullerene Chemistry

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Achim Hildebrand , Uwe Hilgers , Rudiger Blume and Dagmar Wiechoczek

Department of Chemistry, Chemical Education, Unversity of Bielefeld, P O Box 100131, 33501 Bielefeld, Germany

J. Chem. Educ., 1996, 73 (11), p 1066

DOI: 10.1021/ed073p1066

Publication Date (Web): November 1, 1996

Section:

History, Education, and Documentation

Abstract

The "molecule of the year 1991", C₆₀ buckminsterfullerene, has found its way to experimental chemistry courses in high schools and universities. For the first time a selection of simple experiments with C₆₀ on high-school and university level are presented: the bromination with Winkler's solution, hydroxylation with an alkaline permanganate solution, cycloadditions of dichlorcarbene and cyclopentadiene and the formation of a molecular complex with o-dimethoxybenzene. They are easy to carry out due to the high reactivity of C₆₀. The experiments demonstrate some chemical properties of this new form of carbon. C₆₀ reacts like a giant alkene with electron acceptor properties. To stress this fact, one should compare C₆₀ with other alkenes and aromatic compounds. The characteristic color change of the C₆₀ solutions during the reactions make them easy to observe, even without spectroscopic methods.

Keywords (Audience):

High School / Introductory Chemistry

Keywords (Domain):

Inorganic Chemistry

Keywords (Subject):

Alkenes

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This article has been cited by 2 ACS Journal articles (2 most recent appear below).

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