Qing-Bo Yan, Xian-Lei Sheng, Qing-Rong Zheng, Li-Zhi Zhang, and Gang Su *
College of Physical Sciences, Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 4588, Beijing 100049, China
(Received 21 August 2008; revised manuscript received 9 October 2008; published 3 November 2008)

Abstract:

A set of general constructing schemes is unveiled to predict a large family of stable boron monoelemental, hollow fullerenes with magic numbers 32+8k (k≥0). The remarkable stabilities of these new boron fullerenes are then studied by intense ab initio calculations. An electron counting rule as well as an isolated hollow rule are proposed to readily show the high stability and the electronic bonding property, which are also revealed applicable to a number of newly predicted boron sheets and nanotubes.