1. Introduction
Polycyclic aromatic carbon compounds constitute a large and important class of compounds [1]. Recent additions to this class include fullerenes and carbon nanotubes [2]. An intriguing result in this area appeared in a 1997 publication by Vollhardt and co-workers [3]. The formation of ‘fullerene-type’ materials (nested fullerenes and short multi-walled nanotubes) from the explosive decomposition of solid dehydroannulene 1 (Eq. (1)) was reported. Although more controlled non-explosive decomposition would be desirable, the observation of ordered carbon materials from a solid acetylenic precursor suggests that order (molecular and/or solid state) in the precursor may translate into order in the carbon product. Such a prospect has important implications as even now routes to fullerenes and single-walled carbon nanotubes involve relatively high temperature reactions with limited control over product formation [2] and [4].