Structural stability of the $B_{80}$ fullerene against defect formation

TL;DR

This study systematically investigates the structural stability of the $B_{80}$ boron fullerene, revealing its resilience to various point defects, elastic deformations, and atom addition or removal, indicating high structural robustness.

Contribution

The paper introduces a systematic search for point defects in $B_{80}$ fullerene and demonstrates its stability against defects and elastic changes, a novel insight into boron fullerene robustness.

Findings

Point defects leave the cage structure intact

The cage is stable under elastic deformations

Stable against atom addition/removal

Abstract

Using a systematic search algorithm we identify several types of point defects in the boron fullerene with 80 atoms. All these point defect leave the cage structure intact. In addition the cage structure is also very stable with respect to elastic deformations and addition or removal of atoms.