Fullerene or C60 is soccer-ball-shaped or Ih with 12 pentagons and 20 hexagons.
•
According to Euler's theorem these 12 pentagons are required for closure of the carbon network consisting of n hexagons and C60 is the first stable fullerene because it is the smallest possible to obey this rule.
When Heath was a graduate student at Rice University, he ran the experimental apparatus that generated the first Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the three senior members of the collaboration: Robert F. Curl and Richard E. Smalley of Rice University and Harold Kroto of the University of Sussex.
When dispersed on a gold surface, the molecules attach themselves to the surface via their fullerene groups and are detected via scanning tunneling microscopy.