ROUTES TO CARBON SCHWARZITES FROM FULLERENE FRAGMENTS

We investigated by tight-binding molecular dynamics the coalescence of fullerenic fragments and carbon clusters by following the evolution o f the topological connectivity. Though different temperature variation protocols lead to irregular structures, their connectivity is found t o stabilize at values corresponding either to three-branched schwarzit es or tubulenes, indicating that longtime evolution at constant connec tivity is potentially able to yield regular shapes. These results can be related to experiments on laser-induced transformations of fullerit e occasionally yielding branched structures with a schwarzite shape.