Anomalous Thermal Stability of Metastable C_20 Fullerene

TL;DR

This study uses computer simulations to demonstrate that the metastable C_20 fullerene exhibits exceptional thermal stability, maintaining its structure at high temperatures due to high decay activation energy and potential barriers.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the stability mechanisms of C_20 fullerene, highlighting its resilience against decay at elevated temperatures through detailed energy barrier analysis.

Findings

C_20 fullerene remains stable up to ~3000 K

Decay activation energy is approximately 7 eV

Minimum potential barrier to decay is 5.0 eV

Abstract

The results of computer simulation of the dynamics of fullerene C_20 at different temperatures are presented. It is shown that, although it is metastable, this isomer is very stable with respect to the transition to a lower energy configuration and retains its chemical structure under heating to very high temperatures, T ~ 3000 K. Its decay activation energy is found to be E_a ~ 7 eV. Possible decay channels are studied, and the height of the minimum potential barrier to decay is determined to be U = 5.0 eV. The results obtained make it possible to understand the reasons for the anomalous stability of fullerene C_20 under normal conditions.