Covalently Bonded Fullerene Nano-Aggregates (C₆₀)<i>_n</i>: Digitalizing Their Energy–Topology–Symmetry

Abstract

Fullerene dimers and oligomers are attractive molecular objects with an intermediate position between the molecules and nanostructures. Due to the size, computationally assessing their structures and molecular properties is challenging, as it currently requires high-cost quantum chemical techniques. In this work, we have jointly studied energies, topological (Wiener indices and roundness), and information theoretic (information entropy) descriptors, and have obtained regularities in triad ‘energy–topology–symmetry’. We have found that the topological indices are convenient to indicating the most and least reactive atoms of the fullerene dimer structures, whereas information entropy is more suitable to evaluate odd–even effects on the symmetry of (C60)n. Quantum chemically assessed stabilities of selected C120 structures, as well as linear and zigzag (C60)n, are discussed.

Keywords

• fullerene
• fullerene dimers
• fullerene oligomers
• topological efficiency
• Wiener index
• information entropy