School of Chemistry, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK.
Philos Trans A Math Phys Eng Sci. 2013 Aug 5;371(1998):20120429. doi: 10.1098/rsta.2012.0429. Print 2013 Sep 13.
Molecular endofullerenes are supramolecular systems consisting of fullerene cages encapsulating small molecules. Although most early examples consist of encapsulated metal clusters, recently developed synthetic routes have provided endofullerenes with non-metallic guest molecules in high purity and macroscopic quantities. The encapsulated light molecule behaves as a confined quantum rotor, displaying rotational quantization as well as translational quantization, and a rich coupling between the translational and rotational degrees of freedom. Furthermore, many encapsulated molecules display spin isomerism. Spectroscopies such as inelastic neutron scattering, nuclear magnetic resonance and infrared spectroscopy may be used to obtain information on the quantized energy level structure and spin isomerism of the guest molecules. It is also possible to study the influence of the guest molecules on the cages, and to explore the communication between the guest molecules and the molecular environment outside the cage.
分子内富勒烯是由富勒烯笼包封小分子形成的超分子体系。尽管大多数早期的例子都是包封的金属团簇，但最近开发的合成途径已经以高纯度和宏观数量提供了具有非金属客体分子的内富勒烯。包封的轻分子表现为受限的量子转子，显示出旋转量子化和平移量子化，以及平移和旋转自由度之间的丰富耦合。此外，许多包封的分子显示出自旋异构现象。可以使用诸如非弹性中子散射、核磁共振和红外光谱等光谱技术来获得关于客体分子的量子化能级结构和自旋异构的信息。也可以研究客体分子对笼的影响，并探索笼外的客体分子与分子环境之间的通讯。
