Yihan Ma

Planar Quinary Cluster inside a Fullerene Cage: Synthesis and Structural Characterizations of Sc3NC@C80-Ih

The endohedral fullerene Sc(3)NC@C(80)-I(h) has been synthesized and characterized; it has an unprecedented planar quinary cluster in a fullerene cage. It is also the first chemical compound in which the presence of an unprecedented (NC)(3-) trianion has been disclosed. The fascinating intramolecular dynamics in Sc(3)NC@C(80)-I(h) enables the whole molecule to display high polarity and promising ferroelectricity. This finding inspires the possibility that such a planar quinary cluster may be useful in constructing many other endohedral fullerenes.

Susceptible electron spin adhering to an yttrium cluster inside an azafullerene C79N

Highly impressionable electron spin was found in endohedral azafullerene Y(2)@C(79)N at low temperature or upon exohedral chemical modification. These external stimulations can be employed to manipulate the spin-active Y(2)@C(79)N and can further be used in quantum processes for promising information-carrying spin systems and molecular devices.

Electron Spin Manipulation via Encaged Cluster: Differing Anion Radicals of Y2@C82-Cs, Y2C2@C82-Cs, and Sc2C2@C82-Cs.

Endohedral metallofullerene species with controllable electron spin have attracted increasing attention along with their potential application in quantum information processing. In this paper, we report the electron spin manipulation via encage cluster through comparative studies on the anion radicals of metallofullerene Y2@C82-Cs, Y2C2@C82-Cs, and Sc2C2@C82-Cs. Although these three radical species have the same parent fullerene cage, we found that the unpaired spin characteristics as well as metal-spin couplings of them can be greatly affected by endohedral clusters. Furthermore, based on theoretical calculations, it was revealed that the encaged clusters can affect the electronic population of pristine endohedral metallofullerenes and eventually manipulate the spin distribution of their corresponding anion radicals. Our findings are referential to the spin coherence in information processing due to the variable paramagnetism of these metallofullerene radicals.