Structural models of inorganic fullerene-like structures

in the study of fullerene-like structures, some of the more interesting systems are the inorganic cages, made of MoS2 (usually named inorganic fullerenes), which have many important potential applications as lubricant and catalysts. In the present work, we report calculations for structural models of closed cage of inorganic fullerene-like structures for Most system. Three cage shapes were found to be the most stable: triangular pyramid, octahedron and dodecahedron. High resolution TEM images of MoS2 cages structures were calculated to be compared with experimental data. Some examples of triangular pyramid and polyhedron in experimental MoS2 samples are presented. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.