Fullerenes and spheroidization of graphite in iron alloys

The mechanism of layer-by-layer crystallization of globular graphite with the formation of fullerenes suggested by some researchers (and correct in principle) should be supplemented by taking into account the following thermodynamic aspect. A buckeyball like C60 cannot become itself an endogenic center of graphitization, because its diameter of less than 1 nm should be compressed by a very high Laplace pressure due to the effect of the interphase surface tension: then the chemical potential of the carbon will exceed that of cementite and cause “carbonization” instead of “graphitization”. It is more likely that “fullerene” curved layers are deposited on quite coarse tensoactive nonmetallic inclusions (endogenic and exogenic) rather than on the C60 buckeyballs.