STRUCTURAL AND MICROSTRUCTURAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SOLID C-60

The new carbon variant, the solid C60, exhibits several structural/microstructural subtleties. The very crystallographic nature where generally orientational ordering is missing endows curious characteristics to this and other similar solids (fullerenes). The known structural characteristics of solid C60 have been reviewed first. This is followed by the description of our work on the structural (local area structure) microstructure and defect substructure of C60 solid. In particular, the simultaneous occurrence of FCC (a approximately 14.17 angstrom) and HCP (a approximately 10.02 angstrom, c approximately 16.36 angstrom) structural variants, the formation of domain (partial orientational order), the occurrence of [111] oriented stacking faults, the occurrence of superlattice a(s) = 3a(c) approximately 42.31 angstrom and existence of anomalous graphitic carbon configurations have been dealt with and discussed.