Editing Fullerene (section)

===Predictions and limited observations===
The icosahedral {{chem|C|60|H|60}} cage was mentioned in 1965 as a possible topological structure.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Schultz |first=H.P. |year=1965 |title=Topological Organic Chemistry. Polyhedranes and Prismanes |journal=[[Journal of Organic Chemistry]] |volume=30 |issue=5 |pages=1361–1364 |doi=10.1021/jo01016a005}}</ref> [[Eiji Osawa]] predicted the existence of {{chem|C|60}} in 1970.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Osawa |first=E. |year=1970 |title=Superaromaticity |journal=Kagaku |volume=25 |pages=854–863}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Halford |first=B. |date=9 October 2006 |title=The World According to Rick |url=http://pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/84/8441cover.html |journal=[[Chemical & Engineering News]] |volume=84 |issue=41 |pages=13–19 |doi=10.1021/cen-v084n041.p013}}</ref> He noticed that the structure of a [[corannulene]] molecule was a subset of the shape of a football, and hypothesised that a full ball shape could also exist. Japanese scientific journals reported his idea, but neither it nor any translations of it reached Europe or the Americas.

Also in 1970, [[R.W.Henson]] (then of the [[United Kingdom|UK]] [[Atomic Energy Research Establishment]]) proposed the {{chem|C|60}} structure and made a model of it. Unfortunately, the evidence for that new form of carbon was very weak at the time, so the proposal was met with skepticism, and was never published. It was acknowledged only in 1999.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Thrower |first=P.A. |author-link=Peter Thrower |year=1999 |title=Editorial |journal=[[Carbon (journal)|Carbon]] |volume=37 |issue=11 |pages=1677–1678 |doi=10.1016/S0008-6223(99)00191-8|bibcode=1999Carbo..37.1677. }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Henson |first=R.W. |title=The History of Carbon 60 or Buckminsterfullerene |url=http://www.solina.demon.co.uk/c60.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130615212528/http://www.solina.demon.co.uk/c60.htm |archive-date=15 June 2013}}</ref>

In 1973, independently from Henson, D. A. Bochvar and E. G. Galpern made a quantum-chemical analysis of the stability of {{chem|C|60}} and calculated its electronic structure. The paper was published in 1973,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bochvar |first1=D.A. |last2=Galpern |first2=E.G. |year=1973 |title=О гипотетических системах: карбододекаэдре, s-икосаэдре и карбо-s-икосаэдре |trans-title=On hypothetical systems: carbon dodecahedron, S-icosahedron and carbon-S-icosahedron |journal=[[Proceedings of the USSR Academy of Sciences|Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR]] |volume=209 |pages=610}}</ref> but the scientific community did not give much importance to this theoretical prediction.

Around 1980, [[Sumio Iijima]] identified the molecule of {{chem|C|60}} from an electron microscope image of [[carbon black]], where it formed the core of a particle with the structure of a "bucky onion".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Iijima |first=S |year=1980 |title=Direct observation of the tetrahedral bonding in graphitized carbon black by high resolution electron microscopy |journal=Journal of Crystal Growth |volume=50 |issue=3 |pages=675–683 |bibcode=1980JCrGr..50..675I |doi=10.1016/0022-0248(80)90013-5}}</ref>

Also in the 1980s at MIT, [[Mildred Dresselhaus]] and [[Morinobu Endo]], collaborating with T. Venkatesan, directed studies blasting graphite with lasers, producing carbon clusters of atoms, which would be later identified as "fullerenes."<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-10-05 |title=Mildred S. Dresselhaus |url=https://www.fi.edu/laureates/mildred-s-dresselhaus |access-date=2022-10-08 |website=The Franklin Institute |language=en}}</ref>