BENZENOIDS TO FULLERENES AND THE CIRCUMSCRIBING ALGORITHM

In this first explicit example of the application of the circumscribing algorithm to the generation of fullerenes with isolated pentagonal rings (IPRs), many interrelationships are demonstrated. It is shown that the ring-stacking fullerene growth model is an implicit form of circumscribing. A form of the ''principle of microscopic reversibility'' is invoked for the formation of fullerenes via the forward and reverse circumscribing (ring-stacking) sequences in which the base EIS and capping carbon fragments are interchanged and the ring-stacking order is reversed.