CONTINUOUS CHIRALITY ANALYSIS OF MODEL STONE-WALES REARRANGEMENTS IN FULLERENES

The Stone-Wales rearrangement is analyzed using a newly developed cont inuous chirality measure. In enantiomerization reactions of chiral ful lerenes we find an approximately linear correlation between ct-energy and the chirality content of the molecule. These correlations show tha t the sensitivity to chirality change increases for larger fullerenes. We show its predictive properties and provide an explanation for it o n the basis of another observation; namely, that the chirality value d ecreases monotonically with fullerene size. Comparison of the enantiom erization to other isomerizations of fullerenes is made.