Inorganic chemistry of carbon
There is a rich variety of carbon chemistry that does not fall within the
realm of organic chemistry and is thus called inorganic carbon chemistry.
Perhaps best well known are the oxides of carbon, carbon dioxide and
carbon monoxide. Other types include
(but are not limited to) inorganic salts and complexes of the
carbon-containing polyatomic ions, cyanide, cyanate, thiocyanate, carbonate, and carbide.
The known inorganic chemistry of the allotropes of carbon (diamond,
graphite, and the fullerenes) blossomed with the discovery of
buckminsterfullerene in the late 20th century as additional
fullerenes and their various derivatives were discovered. One such class of
derivatives is inclusion compounds, in which an ion is enclosed by the
all-carbon shell of the fullerene. This inclusion is denoted by the "@"
symbol. For example, an ion consisting of a lithium ion trapped within
buckminsterfullerene would be denoted C60@Li+. As
with any other ionic compound, this complex ion could in principle pair with a counterion to form a salt.
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