Haeckelite 8–4 structure containing square and octagonal rings Haeckelites are members of a proposed family of hypothetical carbon allotropes. The carbon atoms would be arranged in a trivalently coordinated structure generated by a periodic arrangement of pentagonal, hexagonal and heptagonal

carbon ring In organic chemistry, an alicyclic compound contains one or more all-carbon Cyclic compound, rings which may be either Saturated and unsaturated compounds, saturated or unsaturated, but do not have aromaticity, aromatic character. Alicyclic compo ...

s. They have not yet been synthesised in the laboratory, but have been the subject of a considerable amount of theoretical work and numerical simulation. They were first proposed by Humberto and Mauricio Terrones and their colleagues in 2000.

Name

alt=ink illustration of protists, Artful illustrations of protists by Ernst Haeckel inspired the name, like this plate depicting a fullerene-like ''Aulonia'' They were named in honour of

Ernst Haeckel Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (; ; 16 February 1834 – 9 August 1919) was a German zoologist, natural history, naturalist, eugenics, eugenicist, Philosophy, philosopher, physician, professor, marine biology, marine biologist and artist ...

, whose diagrams of

Radiolaria The Radiolaria, also called Radiozoa, are unicellular eukaryotes of diameter 0.1–0.2 mm that produce intricate mineral skeletons, typically with a central capsule dividing the cell into the inner and outer portions of endoplasm and ect ...

and Phaeodarea contained similar structural features.

References

{{allotropes of carbon category:tessellation category:allotropes of carbon