Is dodecahedral P20 special?

Summary The laboratory study of phosphorus clusters by laser-based mass spectrometric methods indicates, tentatively, that P ₊ ²¹ may be special. A plausible interpretation might place a P⁺ ion interior to a dodecahedral P₂₀ molecule.Ab initio quantum mechanical methods have been applied to the P₂₀ molecule using contracted gaussian basis sets as large as (9s 6p 4d 3f) on each phosphorus atom. At the highest level of theory, dodecahedral P₂₀ is predicted to lie 23 kcal/mol above five separated P₄ molecules.Dedicated to Professor Werner Kutzelnigg