Who were the student researchers involved in the 1985 discovery of C60?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

The student researchers involved in the 1985 discovery of C60 (buckminsterfullerene) were James Heath, Yuan Liu, and Sean O’Brien.12

These students worked alongside chemists Sir Harold W. Kroto, Richard E. Smalley, and Robert F. Curl, Jr. during an 11-day series of experiments at Rice University. Using Smalley’s laser-supersonic cluster beam apparatus to vaporize graphite, the team successfully simulated the chemical conditions of giant stars, which led to the serendipitous discovery of the highly stable, 60-atom carbon molecule.312