The role of the C2 gas in the emergence of C60 from the condensing carbon vapour

A model has been developed that illustrates the emergence of C60 from the condensing carbon vapor. It is shown to depend upon the decreasing heats of formation for larger cages, exponentially increasing number of isomers for fullerenes that are larger than C60, large cages buckling induced by the pentagon-related protrusions that initiate fragmentation, the structural instability induces fragmentation that shrinks large cages and an evolving gas of C2 that is crucial to the whole process. The model describes a mechanism for the provision and presence of plenty of C2 during the formation and fragmentation processes. The bottom-up formations of large cages followed by the top-down cage shrinkage are shown to be stable, dynamical processes that lead to the C60 dominated fullerene ensemble.