C60: The First One-Component Gel?

Until now, gels have been formed of multicomponent soft matter systems, consisting of a solvent and one or more macromolecular or colloidal species. Here we show that, for sufficient quench rates, the Girifalco model of C-60 can form gels which we identify by their slow dynamics and long-lived network structure. These gels are stable at room temperature, at least on the simulation time scale up to 100 ns. At moderate temperatures around 1000 K, below the bulk glass transition temperature, C-60 exhibits crystallization and phase separation proceeds without the dynamical arrest associated with gelation, in contrast to many colloidal systems.