The March model applied to boron cages

The so-called March model of fullerene, in which a self-consistent spherical distribution of π electrons is combined with the proper nuclear–nuclear potential energy for the correct structure, is here extended to boron cages. The Thomas–Fermi approximation of the initial studies is here replaced by Hartree–Fock calculations. Explicit results for B2k and B2k+1+, with k ranging from 15 to 27, are discussed and compared with calculations on similar clusters found in the literature.