I think this is interesting. Whether one needs to read the whole thing
is another matter.
"FREE ACCESS TO NATURE MATERIALS ARTICLE ON FOOTBALL OXIDES
For a limited time you can receive free access to this Nature
Materials article by visiting:
http://info.nature.com/cgi-bin24/DM/y/eOGB0BfZp70Cz0JgV0Ae
The discovery in 1985 that carbon atoms can assemble into C60 cages of
buckminsterfullerene - named after the American architect Buckminster
Fuller, who used similar geodesic domes to construct large-scale
structures - has been one of the most exciting findings in chemistry
in recent years. In the April issue of Nature Materials, Maryvonne
Hervieu and colleagues of Laboratoire CRISMAT, Caen report a synthetic
strategy for fullerene-like oxides based on a framework of aluminates,
opening the way to a new area in solid-state chemistry.
The reported fullerenoid oxide is made of Al84 skeleton spheres, but
its remarkable characteristic, compared with the structurally
reminiscent C84 fullerene, is that the large spheres are filled by
strontium and oxygen species forming onion-like layers around a
central bismuth cluster. This unprecedented material should open the
route to the exploration of many other structural possibilities by
varying the size of the aluminium spheres, their connections, and
introducing other species onto the aluminium sites. As a consequence,
this series of materials could be of potential interest for
applications including thermoluminescence, photoluminescence,
magnetism, nonlinear optical properties and even catalysis.
"
--
Dr Adrian Midgley from the office using Open Source
Homefield Surgery because it is better
Exeter UK www.homefieldsurgery.nhs.uk
01392 214151 www.defoam.net
www.oshca.org
Homefield Surgery Heavitree Exeter 01392 214151
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