Angular distributions of 16O + 16O elastic scattering at energies that range from 124 to 1120 MeV have
been analyzed in the framework of the double folding (DF) optical model. Based upon the α-cluster structure
of the 16O nucleus, two different versions of the real DF optical potential have been generated by using three
effective α-α, α-nucleon (N) and nucleon-nucleon (NN) interactions. A microscopic optical potential built upon
the M3Y effective NN interaction and the matter density distribution of the 16O nucleus has also been extracted.
The obtained real potentials, in conjunction with phenomenological squaredWoods-Saxon imaginary parts, have
successfully reproduced seven sets of elastic-scattering data. No renormalization of the real folded α-cluster
potentials is required to fit the data. The energy dependence of the extracted real and imaginary volume integrals
and total reaction cross section has also been investigated.