THE FACTORIZATION OF BUCKMINSTERFULLERENE INTO CYCLOCARBON COMPONENTS

The algorithm CYCLO-60 dagger has been used to compute the structures of all 158 different factorizations of buckminsterfullerene (I-h-C-60) into cyclocarbon components, where a cyclocarbon is defined as a mono cyclic ring of carbon atoms. This algorithm identifies all solutions b y systematically assigning each of the 32 faces of I-h-C-60 cage to on e of two domains. The algorithm is structured to maximize the speed of this computational process by minimizing the total number of permutat ions that need to be considered. Of the 158 factorizations, 42 are mad e up of combinations of cyclocarbons of a reasonable size (C-n; n grea ter than or equal to 12). These solutions are of interest as they sugg est suitable precursor molecules for the directed synthesis of I-h-C-6 0 and its heterofullerene and endohedral derivatives under relatively mild experimental conditions.