Holmium Nitride Clusters Trapped in Large Fullerene Cages

Indianapolis, IN

There are only a few publications on the subject of holmium nitride metallofullerenes. Of the few reports available in the literature, the focus has been on the dominant species, Ho3N@C80. Unfortunately for Ho3N clusters entrapped in larger cages (e.g., C88, C92, C96), there is less information. The lack of research on higher cage metallofullerenes (e.g., Ho3N@C88) is due to insufficient quantities of purified materials. The objective of our research is to develop a novel purification method that would permit their isolation. In this poster, we utilize wet chemistry methods to remove fullerene contaminants from complex soot extract. Upon obtaining enriched samples of Ho3N@C2n, a simple HPLC cleanup as a final step yields purified Ho3N fullerenes in large fullerene cages (e.g., Ho3N@C88).