Crystalline Fullerenes

The fullerenes C 60 and C 70 act as spherical building blocks in crystalline solids to form a variety of crystal structures. In many cases, the icosahedral molecular symmetry of C 60 appears to play little role in determining the crystal structure. In this chapter we discuss our results on the crystallography of pure and solvated fullerenes and some general features of fullerenes as building units in crystalline solids. For pure C 60 or C 70, the face-centered cubic arrangement is preferred. In solvated crystals and compounds, the packing readily adapts to form non-close-packed structures.