CLUSTERS OF C60 MOLECULES

Clusters of 13, 19 and 55 C60 molecules are investigated by molecular dynamics simulation and in terms of their potential-energy surfaces. For (C60)55 nearly 3000 rearrangement pathways have been calculated and compared with a similar sample for a 55-atom cluster bound by the simpler Lennard-Jones potential. Striking differences are revealed between these systems, both in terms of the potential-energy surface and thermodynamic properties. These results are due to the shorter range of the C60 intermolecular potential: for example, the rearrangement mechanisms of (C60)55 are generally much more localised that those of LJ55.