The hollow internal cavity of fullerene buckyballs, e.g. C2n, has been known to able to encapsulate novel metallic units, especially those otherwise very reactive or virtually impossible to prepare clusters. In this talk, we will present our recent studies of a novel family of fullerenes, actinide endohedral fullerenes. The synthesis of Th@C82, U@C2n, (2n = 72, 84) and their unique electronic properties will be discussed. Moreover, we reveal the discovery of a long sought-after unsupported U=C in an unpredicted UCU@Ih-C80 compound. This study suggests that actinide endohedral fullerenes not only demonstrate substantially different bond motif and cage structures from those lanthanide fullerenes and also reveal unique actinide bonds which have never been discovered in the conventional actinide compound reported previously.

Actinide endohedral fullerenes: Molecular structures and unique bindings

2019 Spring National Meeting

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