Geometric modeling of midi-fullerene growth from C32 to C60

Abstract

Axonometric projections together with the corresponding graphs for fullerenes are constructed in the range from 32 to 60. The growth of fullerenes is studied on the basis of a mechanism according to which a carbon dimer embeds in a hexagon of an initial fullerene. This leads to stretching and breaking the covalent bonds which are parallel to arising tensile forces. In this case, instead of a hexagon adjoining two pentagons, two adjacent pentagons adjoining two hexagons are obtained. As a result, there arises a new atomic configuration and there is mass increase of two carbon atoms. We considered the direct descendants of fullerene C32; namely, C2n, where n = 17–30.