Eur. Phys. J. D 15, 57-63 (2001)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s100530170183

Structures and energetics of carbon bridged C₆₀ clusters

Center Of Super-Diamond and Advanced Films (COSDAF) & Department of Physics and Materials Science, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, P.R. China

Corresponding author: ^a aprqz@cityu.edu.hk

Received: 17 January 2001
Revised: 26 February 2001
Published online: 15 July 2001

Abstract

The structures and energetics of carbon bridged C₆₀ clusters (CC_m have been studied by simulated annealing technique within the tight-binding molecular-dynamics. The "sp² addition" ball-and-chain dimers exhibit odd-even alternations over the number of chain atoms, with the dimers containing even chain atoms more stable against dissociation than their immediate neighbors containing odd chain atoms. In addition to the usual "sp² addition" dimers, a pentagon-linked C₁₂₁ isomer and a hexagon-linked C₁₂₂ isomer are also found to be stable. Based on our tight-binding calculations, trimers and larger clusters can be simply regarded as being made up of independent or weakly interacting dimers, if the C-C₆₀ joints on a single cage are not too close to each other. Large C₆₀ clusters connected by chains each containing only one or two carbon atoms have similar stability to that of constituent dimers, indicating the possibility to form stable C₆₀-carbon polymers.