or would you need an electron microscope?
2007-01-14 15:05:11 · 6 answers · asked by SCOTT M 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
You need a Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) to see it. Scanning electron microscopes (SEM) may work, but it's a lot of work for the operator and still hard to see. Carbon nanotubes may be slightly better, but the TEM is still preferred.
Of course, when they're all clumped together they look like soot. It's just a fine black powder. But what the answer above said is not true. Candle soot is NOT buckyballs. They are just carbon soot. The allotropes are different. Buckyballs and nanotubes are pretty expensive. A few grams of nanotube costed like over $800US in my research. See link for some pictures.
2007-01-15 00:38:25 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
You can see a bunch of them together, though, in your own home. Have you ever seen that really sooty black smoke that rises sometimes from a burning candle? That's pure carbon buckyballs! And, it's extraordinarily carcinogenic in our lungs, so, don't be breathing it.
2007-01-14 15:48:37 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
well, no... They are supposed to be the smallest particle found so far...I don't even know if they show up under an electron microscope...
2007-01-14 15:13:09 · answer #3 · answered by chazzer 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
no, they cannot be seen with the naked eye.
2007-01-14 15:12:19 · answer #4 · answered by Caseyann 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
sure have a look:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/C60-Fulleren-kristallin.JPG
2007-01-14 15:40:14 · answer #5 · answered by catarthur 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
depends how big the bucky is
2007-01-14 15:14:33 · answer #6 · answered by Lorenzo Steed 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋