(Invited) Actinide Endohedral Fullerenes: Unexpected Cages and Encapsulated Clusters

Three new isomers of Th@C82 have been isolated and characterized. These novel actinide endohedral fullerenes were fully characterized by mass spectrometry, single crystal X-ray diffractometry, UV-vis-NIR, Raman and cyclic voltammetry. Among them, an unexpected novel Non-IPR C82 cage, Th@Cs-(39701)-C82, has been identified by X-ray crystallography. Though M@C82 fullerenes are most common form of ednoheral fullerenes, which has been known since the discovery of EMFs, Non-IPR M@C82 has never been discovered before. This is the first C82 based Non-IPR monometallic endohedral fullerenes reported so far. This discovery not only presents a novel C82 fullerene cage but also highlights the unique interaction between single actinide ion and carbon cage. In addition, we will report our recent progress on the actinide cluster fullerenes.