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Letter

Nature Materials 7, 790–794 (1 October 2008) | doi:10.1038/nmat2275

Two Ih-symmetry-breaking C60 isomers stabilized by chlorination

Yuan-Zhi Tan , Zhao-Jiang Liao , Zhuo-Zhen Qian , Rui-Ting Chen , Xin Wu , Hua Liang , Xiao Han , Feng Zhu , Sheng-Jun Zhou , Zhiping Zheng , Xin Lu , Su-Yuan Xie , Rong-Bin Huang & Lan-Sun Zheng

One abiding surprise in fullerene science is that Ih-symmetric buckminsterfullerene C60 (ref.|[nbsp]|1) (Ih–C60 or |[num]|1,812C60, the nomenclature specified by symmetry or by Fowler|[rsquo]|s spiral algorithm) remains the sole C60 species experimentally available. Setting it apart from the other 1,811 topological isomers (isobuckminsterfullerenes) is its exclusive conformity with the isolated-pentagon rule, which states that stable fullerenes have isolated pentagons.