ABSTRACT
In 1985, the existence of a form of elementary carbon with a definite number of carbon atoms, 60 carbon atoms in the shape of a soccer ball (Fig. 1), became certain with the discovery of the fullerenes by Kroto and coworkers [1], Five years later, Kratschmer et al. [2] developed a simple procedure for macroscopic generation of fullerenes. This produced a flood of investigations aimed at new molecules and materials with interesting behavior like superconductivity [3], ferromagnetism [4], biological activity [5-7], nonlinear optical properties [8-10], etc. As a result, great numbers of reports and reviews have been pub lished describing the full scope of fullerene chemistry, including functionalization and physical properties [11-18]. In 1994, photochemistry was the topic of a review by Foote [19]. Since then, intensive research concerning all aspects of fullerene chemistry has been carried out. It is the aim of this chapter to close the gap between 1994 and the present, but because literature concerning fullerene chemistry is widely spread across the disciplines of material science, physics, and chemistry we do not make the claim of being comprehensive, especially in the coverage of conference-related literature.
