The mechanisms of formation of a metastable defect isomer of fullerene C60 due to the Stone-Wales transformation are theoretically studied. It is demonstrated that the paths of the "dynamic" Stone-Wales transformation at a high sufficient for overcoming potential barriers) temperature can differ from the two "adiabatic" transformation paths discussed in the literature. This behavior is due to the presence of a great near-flat segment of the potential-energy surface in the neighborhood of metastable states. Besides, the sequence of rupture and formation of interatomic bonds is other than that in the case of the adiabatictransformation.
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0506571,
title = {Stone-Wales Transformation Paths in Fullerene C60},
author = {A. I. Podlivaev and L. A. Openov},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0506571},
year = {2009}
}