Study on the icosahedral fullerene structure with ultra-light and pressure resistance character.

ABSTRACT

An ultra-light icosahedral fullerene structure is described having 12 pentagonal faces at the vertices of the regular icosahedron and 20 triangular faces, which are expanded by hexagonal faces that consist of carbon atoms. When its size exceeds a critical value, the density of the icosahedron becomes lower than that of air. Since the hollow structure deforms under atmospheric pressure, we proposed the addition of helium atoms as a means to obtaining a floatable icosahedral fullerene with pressure-resistant character. According to these requirements, the radius of the midpoint ball of the edge is 493.33 µm; the total density of the helium-filled structure is 0.18 kg m-3; and the buoyancy per cubic meter in the air is 10.88 N. Theoretical calculation and simulation are combined to explore a new approach to ultra-light materials.