The best way to answer the question, "Can buckyballs have a Lewis structure?" is by saying that it is an allotrope of carbon. Allotropes are different physical forms of the same element. In this case, buckminsterfullerene cannot have a Lewis structure, or at least that's not the best way to show the configuration of buckyballs. In figure 1, you can see there is a Lewis structure for just one carbon atom all alone, with its four valence electrons. The best way to represent this certain allotrope of carbon (C
60) is by drawing out its soccer ball, spherical shape, indicating that the blue circles are the carbon atoms, every yellow line shows a double bond, and every red line shows a single bond (as seen in figure 2). Since we know, looking once again at figure 1, that every carbon atom has four valence electrons therefore making four bonds. Other allotropes of carbon - such as diamond and graphite - would be the same, it's not ideal to represent them by trying to draw a Lewis structure.
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| Figure 2 - Buckminsterfullerene |
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| Figure 1 - Carbon Lewis Structure |
