The Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University has used a supercomputer to simulate a fullerene type structure comprised not of carbon, but of silicon. In their published findings, the team led by Professor Yoshiyuki Kawazoe, reported that a soccer ball-shaped structure with an iron or ruthenium atom at it's centre could be devised with 14-16 silicon atoms around the core.
The significance of this experimental work is that the precision processing technologies for silicon are much more advanced than is the case with carbon, and thus they might in time, become a significant electronic material.
Carbon buckminster fullerenes are already a major area of research ...