Little is known about the chemical nature of the recently isolated carbon clusters (C,,, C,,, C,,, and so forth). One potential application of these materials is as highly dispersed supports for metal catalysts, and therefore the question of how metal atoms bind to C,, is of interest. Reaction of C,, with organometallic ruthenium and platinum reagents has shown that metals can be attached directly to the carbon framework. The native geometry of C,, is almost ideally constructed for dihaptobonding to a transition metal, and an x-ray diffraction analysis of the platinum complex [(C6H5)3P]2Pt(q2-C60)-C4H80 revealed a structure similar to that known for [(C,H,)3P]2Pt(q2-ethylene).The reactivity of C,, is not like that of relatively electron-rich planar aromatic molecules such as benzene. The carbon-carbon double bonds of C,, react like those of very electron-deficient arenes and alkenes.

Paul J. Fagan received his B.S. In chemistry from Rutgers University in 1976. He obtained a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from Northwestern University In 1980. He went on to do postdoctoral work at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Since 1982, he has been in the Central Research and Development Department of E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. His professional interests are in the general fields of inorganic and organometallic chemistry, Including homogeneous catalysis, rational synthesis of molecular solids, and polysilane chemistry. Joseph C. Calabrese graduated with a B.S. from Allegheny College in 1964 and received a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1971. He is currently a Staff Scientist at Du Pont and has used crystallography for over 25 years to study a variety of organic, organometallic, and inorganic chemistry problems. Brian Malone was born In London, England, and attended London University (B.Sc. 1958 , Ph.D. 1963). After a postdoctoral fellowship at the California Institute of Technology, he joined Du Pont in 1966, where he has worked mainly on heterogeneous catalysis and plasma chemistry.

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