Electronic structure and bonding in Si70

We report a detailed AM1 investigation of the geometrical and electronic structure of Si₇₀. For this purpose, bond lengths, bond orders, charges and molecular energy levels are widely analyzed, and compared with previous theoretical and experimental data on Si₆₀ and homologous carbon clusters C₇₀ and C₆₀. The predicted D_5h structure of Si₇₀ is less delocalized than that of C₇₀. Furthermore, Si₇₀ presents the lowest ionization potential (7.63eV), the highest electron affinity (3.61 eV) and the smallest HOMO-LUMO gap (4.02eV) of the four studied clusters.