Recently, at the invitation of the editor-in-chief of "Chemical Research Reviews," Professor Hou Gaolei and his team from the School of Physics at Xi'an Jiaotong University provided a review of their research work in recent years on the structures, spectra, and properties of fullerene-metal clusters.
In recent years, Professor Hou Gaolei from Xi'an Jiaotong University and his collaborators have utilized a dual-sample target dual-beam sputtering laser cluster beam source coupled with inert gas-tagged infrared photodissociation spectroscopy technology. They have, for the first time, measured the high-resolution infrared spectra of gas-phase fullerene-metal complexes. Through combined quantum calculations and molecular dynamics simulations, they discovered that the most favorable binding site for a single vanadium ion on the fullerene surface is above the pentagon, with stability arising from the orbital interactions and electrostatic forces between the metal and the fullerene. This answers the fundamental material structure question of "what is the most stable binding site for a foreign atom or group on the fullerene surface."
Based on the measured high-resolution infrared spectra of gas-phase fullerene-metal complexes, a comparative analysis with astronomical observation spectra obtained from the Spitzer Space Telescope revealed that these complexes could potentially contribute to the unassigned interstellar infrared emission bands and diffuse interstellar bands. Furthermore, Professor Hou Gaolei's team compiled the infrared characteristic frequencies of all currently experimentally measured fullerene species into the VibFullerene dataset. By utilizing density functional theory calculations and statistical analysis, they proposed a reliable method for predicting the infrared spectra of fullerene species, providing crucial references for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in the search for these interstellar species.
The paper reviews the latest advances in the research on fullerene-metal cluster interactions.
Link to the paper: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.accounts.4c00130
