Metal-Metal-Bonding Endohedral Fullerenes

Stable metal-bond encapsulation

Encapsulated metals form metal-metal covalent bonds inside fullerene, offering new building blocks for functional carbon materials.

Yuan, Shui · Liu, Dong · Zhao, Pei · Zhao, Xiang · Ehara, Masahiro · Lu, Xing · Akasaka, Takeshi · Yang, Tao

Journal of Chemical Physics 2023

Advantages

At room temperature, the metal-metal bond length follows the order Sc < Lu < Y

Two electron-sharing bonds exist between the metal dimer and fullerene cage in M2@C82 (M = Sc, Y, Lu)

La–La bond in La2@C82 is weaker than a standard σ covalent bond