Structural surface elements of diamond-core nanoparticles

Ab initio modeling of C (n) clusters comprising up to 250 atoms and having a diamond core revealed stable primary surface elements of nondiamond nature. At large local curvature of the surface, pentaatomic rings dominate. At a smaller local curvature, the fraction of six-membered rings increases, and so does the fraction of structures that resemble open fragments of fullerenes and nuclei of cross-sectional segments of nanotubes.