Fullerenes—an attractive nano carbon material and its production technology

Abstract

Carbon has three allotropes: graphite, diamond, and a molecular form known as fullerene. This article describes the first low cost, high volume process for manufacturing fullerenes, introduced by the Frontier Carbon Corporation (FCC) (Figure 1). FCC is a venture company in Japan whose shareholders are the Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (MCC), the largest chemical company in Japan, and the Mitsubishi Corporation (MC). It was founded in December 2001. Fullerenes have been commercially available since 2002 in Japan.