Activity: Bucky Ball

Talia and the wobbly Bucky Ball

On SCOPE's Nanotechnology episode, you saw Talia build a mega model of a nano - molecule. Here's how:

What you need

• 60 atoms (we'll use small, hard-ish jelly lollies (too soft and it will collapse)
• 90 bonds (half toothpicks will do)

What to do

1. If you have a soccer ball with pentagons (a shape with 5 equal sides) and hexagons (a shape with 6 equal sides) it will help to use it as a model.
2. Start by making a pentagon using the jellies as corners and toothpicks as sides.
3. Onto each side of the pentagon you just made, build a hexagon.

Continue doing this pattern until you reach the top, following these rules:

•  Pentagons are completely surrounded by hexagons, and

•  Hexagons are surrounded by alternating pentagons, then hexagons

•  It will take a while but once your Bucky Ball is finished it will be worth it

If you are still confused, have a look at the step by step photos on this web site.

What's happening?

An actual Bucky ball (or Buck minster Fullerene to give it its full name) is made from 60 carbon atoms, not 60 lollies. It was discovered in 1985 in candle soot along with other similar molecules made from carbon. The family of molecules are called fullerenes and their discovers got a Nobel Prize in1996 for their work. They are named after an architect (Richard Buckminster Fuller) whose geodesic dome designs looked very similar to the structures of these molecules.

The C-60 Bucky ball (its correct title as there are others, is a bit like a molecular soccer ball.

It looks like a soccer ball, spins, bounces against hard surfaces, and when squashed or squeezed, springs back to its original shape!

But unlike a soccer ball, they're really, really small! Scientists think all these cool properties will make Bucky Balls useful in everything from medical research, to optics, to metallurgy, electronics and even fuel!