Exploring Carbon’s Allotropy: A Pupil-Led Synthesis of Fullerenes from Graphite

Abstract

A successful pupil-led effort to build a fullerene generator and to use it to synthesize C60 and C70 is reported, demonstrating that such an activity is feasible in schools. Suggestions are made as to how fullerene synthesis and purification could be used in conventional high school chemistry lessons, particularly in the context of teaching the concept of allotropy, but also to illustrate some of the contrasting properties of simple versus giant covalent structures.