fullerene
/ˈfʊləɹˌin/ noun
Forms fullerenes
- noun (inorganic chemistry) Any of a class of allotropes of carbon having hollow molecules whose atoms lie at the vertices of a polyhedron having 12 pentagonal and 2 or more hexagonal faces.
- noun (organic chemistry) Any closed-cage compound having twenty or more carbon atoms consisting entirely of 3-coordinate carbon atoms.
- noun (chemistry, by extension) The class of carbon allotropes consisting of tubular carbon molecules (carbon nanotubes) and spheroidal carbon molecules (traditional fullerenes).
Etymology
After Buckminster Fuller, inventor of the geodesic dome, + -ene.
Sources: Wiktionary — from the Wiktionary entry “fullerene”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details