DECORATED FULLERENES AND MODEL STRUCTURES FOR WATER CLUSTERS

Polyhedral cage structures for water clusters (H2O)n, are proposed for all even values of n greater-than-or-equal-to 20 (except n = 22). The geometries are based on tetrahedral decorations of the "fullerene" pseudospherical polyhedra. Each has 12 pentagonal and [(1/2) n - 10] hexagonal rings of water molecules linked by hydrogen bonds. The decorated fullerene series may have applications as hypothetical elemental and silicate clusters.