title: Direct transformation of graphene to fullerene.
abstract: Although fullerenes can be efficiently generated from graphite in high yield, the route to the formation of these symmetrical and aesthetically pleasing carbon cages from a flat graphene sheet remains a mystery. The most widely accepted mechanisms postulate that the graphene structure dissociates to very small clusters of carbon atoms such as C(2), which subsequently coalesce to form fullerene cages through a series of intermediates. In this Article, aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy directly visualizes, in real time, a process of fullerene formation from a graphene sheet. Quantum chemical modelling explains four critical steps in a top-down mechanism of fullerene formation: (i) loss of carbon atoms at the edge of graphene, leading to (ii) the formation of pentagons, which (iii) triggers the curving of graphene into a bowl-shaped structure and which (iv) subsequently zips up its open edges to form a closed fullerene structure.
authors.affiliation: University of Ulm, Central Facility of Electron Microscopy, Electron Microscopy Group of Materials Science, Albert Einstein Allee 11, 89069 Ulm, Germany. a.chuvilin@nanogune.eu
authors.forename: Andrey
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chuvilin
authors.forename: Ute
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Kaiser
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bichoutskaia
authors.forename: Nicholas A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Besley
authors.forename: Andrei N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Khlobystov
mesh_terms: D037741:Fullerenes / Q000737:chemistry*; D006108:Graphite / Q000737:chemistry*; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D008956:Models, Chemical; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D037741:Fullerenes; D006108:Graphite