Electronic interactions in fullerene spheres

TL;DR

This paper analyzes electron-phonon and Coulomb interactions in fullerene spheres, revealing how these interactions scale with size and their implications for molecular polarizability and intermolecular forces.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of how electron-phonon and electrostatic interactions scale with fullerene size, highlighting the role of polarizability in intermolecular interactions.

Findings

Electron-phonon coupling corrections are 1-10 meV in C60 and scale as R^{-4}.

Electrostatic energies are 1-4 eV and scale as R^{-1}.

Charged fullerenes exhibit enhanced electron-phonon coupling and high polarizability.

Abstract

The electron-phonon and Coulomb interactions inC$_{60}$, and larger fullerene spheres are analyzed. The coupling between electrons and intramolecular vibrations give corrections $\sim 1 - 10$ meV to the electronic energies for C$_{60}$, and scales as $R^{-4}$ in larger molecules. The energies associated with electrostatic interactions are of order $\sim 1 - 4$ eV, in C$_{60}$ and scale as $R^{-1}$. Charged fullerenes show enhanced electron-phonon coupling, $\sim 10$ meV, which scales as $R^{-2}$. Finally, it is argued that non only C$_{60}^{-}$, but also C$_{60}^{--}$ are highly polarizable molecules. The polarizabilities scale as $R^3$ and $R^4$, respectively. The role of this large polarizability in mediating intermolecular interactions is also discussed.