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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 July 2020
Fullerenes have many families such as simple ball-shaped fullerenes, nanotubes, and onions. Additionally torus, Y-shaped particle, and graphitic network with periodic holes or dimples have been theoretically anticipated. The presence of various shapes in fullerenes is mainly attributed to the combination of five-membered and seven-membered rings in addition to six-membered rings composing ordinary graphite crystal. The five-membered rings are necessary for positive curvature of the fullerenes, while the seven-membered rings for negative curvature. Experimentally, the negative curvature has been restricted so far to the joint between cone and tube in nanotubes and the spiral tubes. We have found a new type of multishell fullerenes with negative curvature which consist of three horns protrude into three-fold symmetric directions, referred as three-horned multishell fullerene (THF) in this report, using a high resolution transmission electron microscope (TEM). Here, we first describe the formation briefly and secondly concerned with procedure to determine the structure of the THF.