Comment on “Increase in specific heat and possible hindered rotation of interstitial C2 moleculesin neutron-irradiated graphite”

Abstract

Iwata and Watanabe’s model for the observed low-temperature specific heat of neutron-irradiated graphite [T. Iwata and M. Watanabe, Phys. Rev. B 81, 014105 2010] assumes that self-interstitial atoms exist as clusters of nearly free C2 molecules. We suggest that their hypothesis is not supported by other experiments and theory, including our own calculations. Not only is it inconsistent with the long-known kinetics of interstitial prismatic dislocation loop formation, density-functional theory shows that the di-interstitial is covalently bonded to the host crystal. In such calculations no prior assumptions are made about the nature of the bonding, covalent or otherwise.