Blending Non-Group-3 Transition Metal and Rare-Earth Metal into a C Fullerene Cage with D Symmetry.

Rare-earth metals have been mostly entrapped into fullerene cages to form endohedral clusterfullerenes, whereas non-Group-3 transition metals that can form clusterfullerenes are limited to titanium (Ti) and vanadium (V), and both are exclusively entrapped within an I -C cage. Non-Group-3 transition-metal-containing endohedral fullerenes based on a C cage with D symmetry, V Sc N@D -C (x=1, 2), have now been synthesized, which exhibit two variable cluster compositions. The molecular structure of VSc N@D -C was unambiguously determined by X-ray crystallography. According to a comparative study with the reported Ti- and V-containing clusterfullerenes based on a I -C cage and the analogous D -C -based metal nitride clusterfullerenes containing rare-earth metals only, the decisive role of the non-Group-3 transition metal on the formation of the corresponding D -C -based clusterfullerenes is unraveled.