Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 February 2011
Purely carbonaceous aggregates C20 have been studied by the AM1 quantumchemical method. In addition to one dodecahedron-shaped structure possessing C1 symmetry another three-dimensional species is revealed, viz. a bowl-shaped structureof C5v symmetry (and also one two-dimensional and two one-dimensional species). Temperature dependence of the relative stabilities of both three-dimensional structures is evaluated, showing that in the relevant temperature region the fullerenic species is prevailing. However, in a very high temperature region a relative-stability interchange has been predicted.