Fullerenes with distant pentagons

Abstract: For each $d>0$, we find all the smallest fullerenes for which the least distance between two pentagons is $d$. We also show that for each $d$ there is an $h_d$ such that fullerenes with pentagons at least distance $d$ apart and any number of hexagons greater than or equal to $h_d$ exist. We also determine the number of fullerenes where the minimum distance between any two pentagons is at least $d$, for $1 \le d \le 5$, up to 400 vertices.