Haeckelites

Haeckelite 8–4 structure containing square and octagonal rings[1]

Haeckelites are members of a proposed family of hypothetical carbon allotropes. The carbon atoms would be arranged in a trivalently coordinated structure generated by a periodic arrangement of pentagonal, hexagonal and heptagonal carbon rings. They have not yet been synthesised in the laboratory, but have been the subject of a considerable amount of theoretical work and numerical simulation. They were first proposed by Humberto and Mauricio Terrones and their colleagues in 2000.[2]

Name

ink illustration of protists
Artful illustrations of protists by Ernst Haeckel inspired the name, like this plate depicting a fullerene-like Aulonia

They were named in honour of Ernst Haeckel, whose diagrams of Radiolaria and Phaeodarea contained similar structural features.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Haeckelites.
  1. ^ Camacho-Mojica, Dulce C.; López-Urías, Florentino (2015). "GaN Haeckelite Single-Layered Nanostructures: Monolayer and Nanotubes". Scientific Reports. 5: 17902. Bibcode:2015NatSR...517902C. doi:10.1038/srep17902. PMC 4674713. PMID 26658148.
  2. ^ Terrones, H; Terrones, M; Hernandez, E; Grobert, N; Charlier, J. C.; Ajayan, P. M.; et al. (2000). "New Metallic Allotropes of Planar and Tubular Carbon" (PDF). Physical Review Letters. 84 (8): 1716–1719. Bibcode:2000PhRvL..84.1716T. doi:10.1103/physrevlett.84.1716. PMID 11017608.