The role of the C2 gas in the emergence of C60 from the condensing carbon vapour

TL;DR

This paper presents a model explaining how C60 fullerenes form from condensing carbon vapor, emphasizing the role of C2 gas, cage stability, and fragmentation processes in the emergence of C60.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive model detailing the formation and fragmentation mechanisms leading to C60, highlighting the importance of C2 gas in fullerene evolution.

Findings

C60 formation depends on decreasing heats of formation for larger cages.

Large fullerene cages tend to buckle and fragment, shrinking toward C60.

A stable process of cage formation and shrinkage leads to C60 dominance.

Abstract

A model has been developed that illustrates the emergence of C60 from the condensing carbon vapor. It is shown to depend upon the decreasing heats of formation for larger cages, exponentially increasing number of isomers for fullerenes that are larger than C60, large cages buckling induced by the pentagon-related protrusions that initiate fragmentation, the structural instability induces fragmentation that shrinks large cages and an evolving gas of C2 that is crucial to the whole process. The model describes a mechanism for the provision and presence of plenty of C2 during the formation and fragmentation processes. The bottom-up formations of large cages followed by the top-down cage shrinkage are shown to be stable, dynamical processes that lead to the C60 dominated fullerene ensemble.