Fullerene

Carbon based molecules arranged in cage-like spheres or derivatives thereof. Configurations such as C60 (the famous Nobel prize winning buckminsterfullerene/buckyball), C70, C84 are used in a wide variety of applications such as photovoltaics, composites and hydrogen storage. Additionally, C60 fullerenes are soluble in a number of thermoset hardeners, including amine hardeners, and can provide significant improvements to mechanical properties of thermosets at loadings of 0.01% - 0.12%. The main improvements are in impact strength, which have been observed in epoxy to be 100% - 200% at these loadings. There are obvious applications with C60 here in advanced composites. Also, because C60 is partially soluble in these resin systems, they can improve resin performance while allowing the resin to remain optically clear, which opens up applications in UV curable resin systems.