The atom-atom potential. Exohedral and endohedral complexation energies of complexes of X@C60 between fullerene and rare-gas atoms (X = He, Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe)

The atom-atom potential method has been used to calculate the interaction between the C60 molecule and the rare-gas atoms. Previous reports on these systems by Pang and Brisse are revised. The endohedral complexes of He@C60, Ne@C60, Ar@C60, and Kr@C60 are more stable than the exohedral complexes but for Xe@C60 the exohedral complex is preferred. We predict the endohedral complex of Xe@C60 to be metastable and the corresponding exohedral complex to be more stable. The endohedral complex Ar@C60 is the most stable complex of all X@C60 systems.