Isomeric Separation of Ih and D5h Sc3N@C80 by Selective Chemical OxidationMaira Cerón, Fangfang Li, and Luis Echegoyen
Department of ChemistryUniversity of Texas at El Paso, TX 79968
This work was generously supported by the US NSF PREM Program, Grant DMR-1205302
Cerón, M. R.; Li, F.-F.; Echegoyen, L. Chem. Eur. J. 2013, DOI: 10.1002/chem.201204219
Fullerenes are carbon cages that are currently being used in solar cells because of their unique properties as electron acceptors. Many other fullerenes exist, some with clusters of atoms included inside the carbon cages, called endohedral fullerenes, with potentially better efficiencies in solar cells, but they are difficult to prepare and purify. Using a simple method based on oxidation-reduction processes we were able to efficiently separate a family of endohedral fullerenes with general formula Sc3N@C2n (n=34, 39 and 40) , which will be evaluated as potential acceptors in solar cells.
Efficient Separation of Endohedral Fullerene Compounds