Chemists Build First "Buckyball" Made of Boron

CelestialScience writes Researchers have built the first "buckyballs" composed entirely of boron. Unlike the original, carbon-based buckyballs, the boron molecules are not shaped like soccer balls, with tessellating pentagons and hexagons. Instead, they are molecular cages made up of hexagons, heptagons and triangles. As Lai-Sheng Wang of Brown University and colleagues report in the journal Nature Chemistry, each one contains 40 atoms, compared with carbon buckyballs which are made of 60. Boron is not the first element after carbon to get "buckyballed", but the boron balls may be the closest analogue to the carbon variety. Because of their reactivity, they could be useful for storing hydrogen.

Comments

Boron?

[CohibaVancouver]

The first time I read the headline I thought it said Chemists Build First "Buckyball" Made of Bacon .

Boron's OK, I suppose, but bacon would have been way wicked cooler.

Re:Boron?

[jeffb (2.718)]

Step 1: Build buckyball model out of wooden skewers and string.

Step 2: Wrap skewers in raw bacon.

Step 3: Microwave.

Step 4: Post to YouTube.

Step 5: Profit!

(Note to whoever actually tries this: Depending on the scale of your model, some of the bacon loops may resonantly couple with the field in your microwave oven. Don't be surprised at arcs and flames. Please don't skip Step 4.)

what a glorious failure!

[Thud457]

They're still talking about his balls 40 years after his death.

This is cool shit

[Infiniti2000]

This is some cool shit. The carbon buckyballs spurred development and interest in carbon nanotubes and some other nano-material stuff. I hope this provides some more funding and interest.

Re:This is cool shit

[Dynedain]

Of course, we still can't make anything out of carbon nanotubes.

Wikipedia claims to differ with several thousand tons produced and used annually.

Re:This is cool shit

[Anonymous Coward]

lol - fail much?

Of course we can make all kinds of things from carbon nanotubes.

From heatsinks
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/175457-this-carbon-nanotube-heatsink-is-six-times-more-thermally-conductive-could-trigger-a-revolution-in-cpu-clock-speeds

Darkest black paint
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/blackest-is-the-new-black-scientists-have-developed-a-material-so-dark-that-you-cant-see-it-9602504.html

radios
http://www.physics.berkeley.edu/research/zettl/projects/nanoradio/radio.html

transistors
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/528601/ibm-commercial-nanotube-transistors-are-coming-soon/

  I for one want the surface of my vehicle coated in the new carbon nanotube black coating so that laser speed sensors would fail entirely.

So, really, we can't making "ANYTHING" from these eh??? Wrong. We just can't create them on a commercial scale *yet*.

Re:This is cool shit

[MightyYar]

The really, really black stuff from yesterday is made with nanotubes.

Re:This is cool shit

[geekoid]

Not true.

Some MRI systems use them
Several non metalic catalyst use them
Some sensors use them.

They are being used more and more as different engineering issues are solved.

Re:This is cool shit

[i kan reed]

Oh, sorry. I don't see color. I judge commercial applications by the content of their character.

Molten?

[B2382F29]

Was it made of molten boron?

Nobody doesn't like molten boron.