C tubes have been full for years₁₃₀ Molecules consisting of 130 carbon atoms existed only in theory. The UdeM physics doctoral student, now leading an international team of scientists, has successfully demonstrated these in real life and even managed to capture some of them in photographs.

The discovery, first published online last October, was made by Bourret as lead scientist on an interuniversity team that also included researchers from Purdue University, Virginia Tech, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

A fuller tube is actually a collection of carbon atoms arranged in a lattice in the form of a closed tube. This is due to fullerenes, which are molecules that present as cages of interconnected hexagons and pentagons and come in a variety of sizes and shapes.

For example, fullerene C₆₀ It consists of 60 carbon atoms and is shaped like a football. It is relatively small, spherical and very abundant. Fullerenes C are less common_120. They are longer and have the shape of a tube, closed at both ends by two halves of fullerene C.₆₀.

Found in institution

Complete tube C₁₃₀ (or C₁₃₀– D_{5 hours}full scientific name) is longer than C₁₂₀and even rarer. To isolate this, Bourret and his team created an electric arc between two graphite electrodes to produce carbon black containing fullerene and fuller tube molecules. The electronic structure of these molecules was calculated using density functional theory (DFT).

“Based on the principles of quantum mechanics, DFT allows us to calculate electronic structures and predict the properties of a molecule using the fundamental laws of physics,” said Bourret’s thesis advisor, UdeM physics professor Michel Côté, a research fellow at the university’s Institut Courtois. .

Using special software, Bourret was able to define the structure of the C130 molecule: It is a tube with two hemispheres at the ends and looks like a microscopic capsule. Its dimensions are 2 nanometers long and 1 nm wide.

“The structure of the tube is basically atoms arranged in hexagons,” Bourret said. “At the two ends, these hexagons are connected by pentagons, which gives them a rounded shape.”

Burre began theoretical work on fullertubes in 2014 under the guidance of his advisor Jiri Patera, professor of mathematics at UdeM. Following Patera’s death in January 2022, Bourret turned to Côté, who became his new boss.

Availability shown in 2020

Two years earlier, Bourret had read a paper by Stephen Stevenson, a professor at Purdue University in Fort Wayne, describing the experimental isolation of some complete tubules, indicating their existence but not identifying all of them. Under the guidance of Côté Bourret, he began working to deepen his knowledge of the subject.

“Emmanuel had a strong background in abstract mathematics and added an interesting dimension to my research group focused on more computational approaches,” Bourret said.

“It’s hard to say at this stage, but one possibility could be hydrogen production,” Côté said. “Currently, platinum and rubidium catalysts are used, which are rare and expensive. Replacing them with carbon structures such as C₁₃₀It will make it possible to produce hydrogen in a “greener” way.”