Inorganic nanotubes and fullerenes - Structure and properties of hypothetical phosphorus fullerenes

The possibility of stable non-carbon fullerenes is discussed for the case o f phosphorus fullerenelike cage structures. On the basis of Density Functio nal Tight Binding calculations it is shown that many such cages correspond to metastable structures, but with increasing nuclearity become less stable with respect to separate molecular P-4 units. Stability rules, known for c arbon fullerenes, such as the "isolated pentagon rule", do not reflect the different electronic and steric requirements of the phosphorus atom. The co mputational results tend to rule out phosphorus fullerenes.