"Water Buckyballs" Chemical, Catalytic, and Cosmic Implications

Abstract

Possible chemical, catalytic, and cosmic roles of charged pentagonal dodecahedral water clusters having "buckyball-like" symmetry are discussed on the basis of electronic and vibronic theory and experiment. The electronic structure in conjunction with the dynamic Jahn-Teller effect is argued to make water buckyballs catalysts and oxygenates for fuel combustion and active agents in biological systems. The broad electronic and unique low-frequency vibronic spectra of water buckyballs may explain certain diffuse interstellar bands, far-infrared, ultraviolet, and x-ray cosmic background radiation, and some "missing cosmic baryonic matter". The relevance of water buckyballs to the properties of liquid and supercritical water concludes the paper.