Editing Fullerene (section)

===Boron===
A type of buckyball which uses [[boron]] atoms, instead of the usual carbon, was predicted and described in 2007. The {{chem|B|80}} structure, with each atom forming 5 or 6 bonds, was predicted to be more stable than the {{chem|C|60}} buckyball.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Gonzalez Szwacki |first1=N. |last2=Sadrzadeh |first2=A. |last3=Yakobson |first3=B. |year=2007 |title={{chem|B|80}} Fullerene: An Ab Initio Prediction of Geometry, Stability, and Electronic Structure |journal=[[Physical Review Letters]] |volume=98 |issue=16 |page=166804 |bibcode=2007PhRvL..98p6804G |doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.166804 |pmid=17501448}}</ref> However, subsequent analysis found that the predicted I<sub>h</sub> symmetric structure was vibrationally unstable and the resulting cage would undergo a spontaneous symmetry break, yielding a puckered cage with rare T<sub>h</sub> symmetry (symmetry of a [[volleyball (ball)|volleyball]]).<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Gopakumar |first1=G. |last2=Nguyen |first2=M.T. |last3=Ceulemans |first3=A. |year=2008 |title=The boron buckyball has an unexpected Th symmetry |journal=[[Chemical Physics Letters]] |volume=450 |issue=4–6 |pages=175–177 |arxiv=0708.2331 |bibcode=2008CPL...450..175G |doi=10.1016/j.cplett.2007.11.030 |s2cid=97264790}}</ref> The number of six-member rings in this molecule is 20 and number of five-member rings is 12. There is an additional atom in the center of each six-member ring, bonded to each atom surrounding it. By employing a systematic global search algorithm, it was later found that the previously proposed {{chem|B|80}} fullerene is not a global maximum for 80-atom boron clusters and hence can not be found in nature; the most stable configurations have complex geometries.<ref name="de2011">{{Cite journal |last1=De |first1=S. |last2=Willand |first2=A. |last3=Amsler |first3=M. |last4=Pochet |first4=P. |last5=Genovese |first5=L. |last6=Goedecker |first6=S. |display-authors=3 |year=2011 |title=Energy Landscape of Fullerene Materials: A Comparison of Boron to Boron Nitride and Carbon |journal=Physical Review Letters |volume=106 |issue=22 |pages=225502 |arxiv=1012.3076 |bibcode=2011PhRvL.106v5502D |doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.225502 |pmid=21702613 |s2cid=16414023}}</ref> The same paper concluded that boron's energy landscape, unlike others, has many disordered low-energy structures, hence pure boron fullerenes are unlikely to exist in nature.<ref name=de2011/>

However, an irregular {{chem|B|40}} complex dubbed [[borospherene]] was prepared in 2014. This complex has two hexagonal faces and four heptagonal faces with in D<sub>2d</sub> symmetry interleaved with a network of 48 triangles.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Zhai |first1=Hua-Jin |last2=Ya-Fan Zhao |last3=Wei-Li Li |last4=Qiang Chen |last5=Hui Bai |last6=Han-Shi Hu |last7=Zachary A. Piazza |last8=Wen-Juan Tian |last9=Hai-Gang Lu |last10=Yan-Bo Wu |last11=Yue-Wen Mu |display-authors=3 |date=2014-07-13 |title=Observation of an all-boron fullerene |journal=Nature Chemistry |volume=6 |issue=8 |pages=727–731 |bibcode=2014NatCh...6..727Z |doi=10.1038/nchem.1999 |issn=1755-4349 |pmid=25054944 |author12=Guang-Feng Wei |author13=Zhi-Pan Liu |author14=Jun Li |author15=Si-Dian Li |author16=Lai-Sheng Wang}}</ref>

{{chem|B|80}} was experimentally obtained in 2024, i.e. 17 years after theoretical prediction by Gonzalez Szwacki ''et al.''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1 = Choi |first1 = Hyun Wook |last2 = Zhang |first2 = Yang-Yang |last3 = Kahraman |first3 = Deniz |last4 = Xu |first4 = Cong-Qiao |last5 = Li |first5 = Jun |last6 = Wang |first6 = Lai-Sheng |title = Boron Buckminsterfullerene |year = 2024 |journal = ChemRxiv |doi = 10.26434/chemrxiv-2024-2xnxl}}</ref>