ABSTRACT
The element, carbon, has been widely studied and investigated since many decades at academic and industrial level depending on its size, that is, atomic, molecular, and bulk. The essential properties such as electronic, physical, and chemical are strongly dependent on the particle size and differ significantly for carbon clusters in comparison to their bulk counterparts. In general, atomic clusters are the aggregation of few or few thousand atoms in a specific shape. The carbon clusters exist in various structures such as atomic chain, carbon dust, single/polycyclic rings, 2D sheet graphene, closed-cage fullerene, nanotube, and graphite. Recently, the study of small atomic carbon clusters is gaining attention due to their application in energy storage/harvesting devices, biological processes, and astrophysical investigations. The pristine and doped atomic carbon cluster carries various significant properties, which vary nonmonotonically with size, shape, and composition. Sometimes, properties of these small carbon 60clusters change drastically with addition/removal of even a single atom. In this chapter, we have discussed the geometrical structure, electronic properties (e.g., ionization potential, electron affinity, polarizability, binding energy, etc.), physical and chemical properties, of small carbon clusters along with the effect of doping with various atoms, especially boron, on the pristine carbon cluster. Furthermore, we have discussed the application of pristine and doped carbon clusters in the field of energy storage/harvest.
