🚀 go-pugleaf

laurent@cenerg.cma.f writes:

>But I read in papers that C60 cristal was not a real cristal 
>but a "molecular cristal" in the sense that every buckyball
>(at non zero temperature) is moving arround the sphere center with 
>a random movement (no covalent link between atoms of two buckyball).
>So how to be able to tell where individual atoms are ?

Well, strictly speaking there shouldn't be any covalent linkages between
carbons on adjacent buckyballs, or you'd have polybuckyball, or something.
However I do believe the part about them rotating in place, which would make
the possibility of obtaining a good diffraction pattern somewhat less. If
there were enough of an energy minimum at some orientation, then they might
be in one place enough of the time for the average to be visible. If I am
wrong about this one then someone call me on it. It seems at least possible
that I am, but this may be something of a unique problem for fullerenes.

Bill Newcomb
nuke@reed.edu
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~/.oo