GENERALIZED STONE-WALES TRANSFORMATIONS

We introduce a large class of transformations allowing rearrangements of the fullerene surface. We call this set of rearrangements generaliz ed Stone-Wales transformations (gSW) because the well-known Stone-Wale s (or pyracylene) flip may be seen as the simplest representative of t he novel gSW family. The interconversion between the two C-28 fulleren e isomers is presented as a simple example of gSW application. Further examples involving the complete generation of C-60 and C-70 isomer sp aces are provided. In both cases, just one fullerene molecule is used as seed data. Some considerations on gSW energetics are also reported.