Franco Cataldo – författare

Fullerenes and nanotubes are two classes of carbon structures or allotropes, which were discovered about 17 years ago. Since that time, many chemical derivatives have been synthesized using fullerenes and nanotubes as building blocks.

Particularly promising was the theory that the chemical properties of fullerenes, and certain derivatives, made them likely candidates for anticancer drugs, inhibitors of viruses such as HIV, or even as anti-bacterials. Their cyctotoxicity can also be controlled by specific circumstances.

In addition, the funtionalization of nanotubes has not only produced relatively simple derivatives, but also complex hybrids with biological macromolecules, which show unique supramolecular architecture and which are promising in many medical applications.

The application of fullerenes and nanotubes in medicine is at the frontier of our knowledge, thus the work in this field represents the basis for future novel developments.

Fulleranes are a special class of carbon molecules derived from fullerenes whose double bonds are partially or at least theoretically fully saturated by hydrogen. The hydrogenation changes the chemical properties of fullerenes which can become susceptible to substitution reactions as opposed to addition reactions to the double bonds (present in common fullerenes). One of the most intriguing aspects of fulleranes is the fact that they have been thought to exist in the interstellar medium or even in certain circumstellar media.

"Fulleranes: The Hydrogenated Fullerenes" presents the state of the art research, synthesis and properties of these molecules.This book also includes astrophysicists'' and astrochemists'' expectations regarding the presence of these molecules in space.

The Mathematics and Topology of Fullerenes presents a comprehensive overview of scientific and technical innovations in theoretical and experimental studies. Topics included in this multi-author volume are: Clar structures for conjugated nanostructures; counting polynomials of fullerenes; topological indices of fullerenes; the wiener index of nanotubes; toroidal fullerenes and nanostars; C60 Structural relatives: a topological study; local combinatorial characterization of fullerenes; computation of selected topological indices of C60 and C80 Fullerenes via the Gap Program; 4valent- analogues of fullerenes; a detailed atlas of Kekule structures of C60. The Mathematics and Topology of Fullerenes is targeted at advanced graduates and researchers working in carbon materials, chemistry and physics.

Topological Modelling of Nanostructures and Extended Systems completes and expands upon the previously published title within this series: The Mathematics and Topology of Fullerenes (Vol. 4, 2011) by gathering the latest research and advances in materials science at nanoscale. It introduces a new speculative area and novel concepts like topochemical reactions and colored reactive topological indices and provides a better understanding of the physical-chemical behaviors of extended systems. Moreover, a charming new family of space-filling fullerenic crystals is here analyzed for the first time.

Particular attention is given to the fundamental influences exercised by long-range connectivity topological mechanisms on the chemical and physical properties of carbon nanostructures. Systems consisting in graphenic layers with structural and topological defects are investigated in their electronic and magnetic behaviors also in presence of metallic particles.

More specifically, the book focuses on: - Electronic Properties of low dimensional nanostructures including negatively-curved carbon surfaces;­ Pariser-Parr-Pople model hamiltonian approach to graphene studies;- Topochemistry and Toporeactcivity of extended sp2-nanocarbons: PAH, fullerenes, nanoribbons, Moebius-like nanoribbons, nanotubes and grapheme;- Novel class of crystal networks arising from spanning fullerenes; - Nanostructures and eigenvectors of matrices and an extended treatise of topological invariants; - Enumeration hetero-fullerenes by Polya theory.

Topological Modelling of Nanostructures and Extended Systems represents a valuable resource to advances graduates and researchers working in mathematics, chemistry, physics and material science.