Another big discovery—metallofullerenes

Abstract

Several days after the first experimental observation of the ‘magic number’ soccerball-shaped C 60 in a laser-vaporized cluster beam mass spectrum by Kroto and co-workers (Heath et al . 1985 J. Am. Chem. Soc. 107 , 7779–7780. ( doi:10.1021/ja00311a102 )) they also found a magic number feature owing to La@C 60 in a mass spectrum prepared by laser vaporization of a LaCl 3 -impregnated graphite rod. With the advent of macroscopic synthesis and the following successful separation and purification of metallofullerenes, both experimental and theoretical studies of metallofullerenes have developed quite rapidly to date so as to elucidate their structural, electronic, magnetic and transport properties. Furthermore, a bottom-up closed network growth mechanism has experimentally been shown to play a crucial role in generating various types of metallofullerenes. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Fullerenes: past, present and future, celebrating the 30th anniversary of Buckminster Fullerene’.