Th@ Td(19151) - C76: A Highly Symmetric Fullerene Cage Stabilized by a Tetravalent Actinide Metal Ion

Meihe Jin; Jiaxin Zhuang; Yaofeng Wang; Wei Yang; Xinye Liu; Ning Chen

doi:10.1021/acs.inorgchem.9b02863

Th@ T_d(19151) - C₇₆: A Highly Symmetric Fullerene Cage Stabilized by a Tetravalent Actinide Metal Ion

Inorg Chem. 2019 Dec 16;58(24):16722-16726. doi: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.9b02863. Epub 2019 Nov 27.

Authors

Meihe Jin¹, Jiaxin Zhuang¹, Yaofeng Wang¹, Wei Yang¹, Xinye Liu¹, Ning Chen¹

Affiliation

¹ Laboratory of Advanced Optoelectronic Materials, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science , Soochow University , Suzhou , Jiangsu 215123 , P. R. China.

PMID: 31773950
DOI: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.9b02863

Abstract

For the first time, Th@T_d(19151)-C₇₆, a highly symmetric C₇₆ cage encapsulating an actinide metal ion, has been synthesized and characterized by single-crystal X-ray crystallography, mass spectrometry, UV-vis-NIR spectroscopy, and cyclic voltammetry. The single-crystal crystallographic analysis unambiguously assigned the fullerene cage as T_d(19151)-C₇₆ and confirmed Th@T_d(19151)-C₇₆ as the first IPR (isolated-pentagon rule) C₇₆-based monometallofullerene. The crystallographic results further revealed that the optimal Th site resides over a sumanene-type hexagon, similar to that of the Th@C₁(11)-C₈₆ but different from the previously reported Th@C_3v(8)-C₈₂. In addition, electrochemical study found that Th@T_d(19151)-C₇₆ processes an unusually low first oxidation potential (0.03 V), suggesting its strong electron donating ability.