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2‐Aminoethanol Extraction as a Method for Purifying Sc 3 N@C 80 and for Differentiating Classes of Endohedral Fullerenes on the Basis of Reactivity
Author(s) -
Sarina Evan A.,
Mercado Brandon Q.,
Franco Jimmy U.,
Thompson Christopher J.,
Easterling Michael L.,
Olmstead Marilyn M.,
Balch Alan L.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
chemistry – a european journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.687
H-Index - 242
eISSN - 1521-3765
pISSN - 0947-6539
DOI - 10.1002/chem.201502415
Subject(s) - fullerene , fullerene chemistry , endohedral fullerene , reactivity (psychology) , carbon fibers , chemistry , adduct , nucleophile , materials science , organic chemistry , pathology , composite number , composite material , catalysis , medicine , alternative medicine
Extraction with 2‐aminoethanol is an inexpensive method for removing empty cage fullerenes from the soluble extract from electric‐arc‐generated fullerene soot that contains endohedral metallofullerenes of the type Sc 3 N@C 2 n ( n =34, 39, 40). Our method of separation exploits the fact that C 60 , C 70 , and other larger, empty cage fullerenes are more susceptible to nucleophilic attack than endohedral fullerenes and that these adducts can be readily extracted into 2‐aminoethanol. This methodology has also been employed to examine the reactivity of the mixture of soluble endohedral fullerenes that result from doping graphite rods used in the Krätschmer–Huffman electric‐arc generator with the oxides of Y, Lu, Dy, Tb, and Gd. For example, with Y 2 O 3 , we were able to detect by mass spectrometry several new families of endohedral fullerenes, namely Y 3 C 108 to Y 3 C 126 , Y 3 C 107 to Y 3 C 125 , Y 4 C 128 to Y 4 C 146 , that resisted reactivity with 2‐aminoethanol more than the empty cage fullerenes and the mono‐ and dimetallo fullerenes. The discovery of the family Y 3 C 107 to Y 3 C 125 with odd numbers of carbon atoms is remarkable, since fullerene cages must involve even numbers of carbon atoms. The newly discovered families of endohedral fullerenes with the composition M 4 C 2 n (M=Y, Lu, Dy, Tb, and Gd) are unusually resistant to reaction with 2‐aminoethanol. Additionally, the individual endohedrals, Y 3 C 112 and M 3 C 102 (M=Lu, Dy, Tb and Gd), were remarkably less reactive toward 2‐aminoethanol.