Abstract
METALLOFULLERENES1,2consist of metal atoms trapped inside closed fullerene cages. Virtually nothing is known about the mechanism of metallofullerene synthesis, although the possibility of a condensed-phase mechanism has been suggested in recent studies3,4. Here we show that laser vaporization of a La2O3/graphite rod produces a number of LaC60+ isomers, including the endohedral metallofullerene and a variety of different isomers in which lanthanum seems to be bound to polycyclic polyyne rings. When heated, nearly all of the different ring isomers convert spontaneously into metallofullerenes, trapping the metal atom inside the fullerene cage with remarkably high efficiency (>98%). We suggest that in the first step of this annealing process the lanthanum atom acts as a nucleation centre and the carbon rings arrange themselves around the lanthanum atom before converting into a fullerene cage.
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Clemmer, D., Shelimov, K. & Jarrold, M. Gas-phase self-assembly of endohedral metallofullerenes. Nature 367, 718–720 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1038/367718a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/367718a0
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