PROGRESS IN THE STUDY ON FULLERENE SCIENCE

The discovery of fullerene offers opportunities to explore the beautiful chemistry on the fullerenes' curved surfaces and design novel fullerene-based materials for numerous applications. Another appeal of fullerenes is that it is possible to execute endohedral chemistry by the encapsulation of atoms or groups of atoms, creating the possibility of further control of the electronic structures and redox properties of fullerenes. Recently the main goals are on the synthesis, characterization, and applications of novel functional materials based on fullerene and metallofullerene derivatives. Some new research projects are proposed on the rational design of new fullerene/metallofullerene materials useful in chemosensors, solar energy converters and devices. The purpose of this paper is to provide a survey on the current development of the investigation on fullerene and its applications