Monday, 25 June 2007
Clayton 101A
134

Spin-Leakage in Nanoparticles of Paramagnetic Endometallofullerenes

Vitaly K. Koltover, Institute of Problems of Chemical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Chernogolovka, Moscow Region, Russia

Endohedral fullerenes (M@C2n) are carbon clusters that contain atoms trapped within the fullerene cage. This “atomic park” of the 21st century counts approximately 30 elements, mainly of 2nd group (Ca, Ba, Sr) and 3rd group (Sc, Y, Ln). Some of them, like La@C2n, have unpaired electrons. For La@C2n embedded in the polycarbonate film, we discovered an intense 1H-ENDOR (electron-nuclear double resonance) signal. Since there are no protons in La@C2n, this was a matrix 1H-ENDOR that testifies permeability of the fullerene shell for the electron spin density. For liquid solutions of La@C2n in hexamethylphosphoramide (HMPA), molecules of which contain NMR active phosphorus-31, the paramagnetic shift of 31P NMR of bulk HMPA molecules in the presence of La@C2n was revealed. Thus, ENDOR and NMR testify that the area of localization of unpaired electrons is not restricted by the fullerene shell but a partial runoff of the electron spin density outside the fullerene cage (“spin-leakage”) takes place. Furthermore, M@C2n form nanoparticles, the mean size of which ranges up to 100 nm in polar solvents. The “spin-leakage” leads to the partial loss of molecular paramagnetism of M@C2n at forming the nanoparticles. The magic angle spinning (MAS) NMR of solid complexes of La@C82 and Y@C82 with HMPA revealed the enormous shifts for 139La lines along with the vast range of the shifts for 31P of the bound HMPA. Being unchanged with temperature, such shifts suggest their Knight nature caused by the density of conduction electrons at the positions of the NMR observed nuclei.