Buckyballs grow by gobbling up carbon

New insights into the formation of some of chemistry's most iconic molecules - the fullerenes - suggest they grow by 'eating' carbon atoms. The study, led by one of the discoverers of buckminsterfullerene (C₆₀), may explain how these football-shaped cage structures form near candle flames and dying stars.

Harry Kroto discovered 'buckyballs' over 25 years ago, while vaporising graphite in helium gas to recreate carbon molecules detected near red giant stars. Since then, chemists have been trying to work out how buckminsterfullerene comes to be. So is the mystery finally solved? Kroto, now at Florida State University in Tallahassee, US, thinks his new study comes pretty close. 'What we have is experimental evidence showing that small cages grow into larger cages,' he says. More...

http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2012/05/buckyballs-grow-gobbling-carbon