30 years of cosmic fullerenes

TL;DR

This paper reviews the discovery, properties, and recent astronomical identification of fullerenes, highlighting their significance in space chemistry and connection to other large carbon molecules like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of 30 years of research on cosmic fullerenes, emphasizing recent spectroscopic detections in space and their implications.

Findings

Fullerenes identified in evolved stars and interstellar medium

Fullerenes exhibit extraordinary stability in space conditions

Link established between fullerenes and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

Abstract

In 1985, "During experiments aimed at understanding the mechanisms by which long-chain carbon molecules are formed in interstellar space and circumstellar shells", Harry Kroto and his collaborators serendipitously discovered a new form of carbon: fullerenes. The most emblematic fullerene (i.e. C$_{60}$ "buckminsterfullerene"), contains exactly 60 carbon atoms organized in a cage-like structure similar to a soccer ball. Since their discovery impacted the field of nanotechnologies, Kroto and colleagues received the Nobel prize in 1996. The cage-like structure, common to all fullerene molecules, gives them unique properties, in particular an extraordinary stability. For this reason and since they were discovered in experiments aimed to reproduce conditions in space, fullerenes were sought after by astronomers for over two decades, and it is only recently that they have been firmly identified by spectroscopy, in evolved stars and in the interstellar medium. This identification offers the opportunity to study the molecular physics of fullerenes in the unique physical conditions provided by space, and to make the link with other large carbonaceous molecules thought to be present in space : polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.