Issue 25, 2018

Probing the interaction between the encapsulated water molecule and the fullerene cages in H2O@C60 and H2O@C59N

Abstract

We report a high-resolution photoelectron imaging study of cryogenically-cooled H2O@C60 and H2O@C59N endohedral fullerene anions. The electron affinity (EA) of H2O@C60 is measured to be 2.6923 ± 0.0008 eV, which is 0.0088 eV higher than the EA of C60, while the EA of H2O@C59N is measured to be 3.0058 eV ± 0.0007 eV, which is 0.0092 eV lower than the EA of C59N. The opposite shifts are found to be due to the different electrostatic interactions between the encapsulated water molecule and the fullerene cages in the two systems. There is a net coulombic attraction between the guest and host in H2O@C60, but a repulsive interaction in H2O@C59N. We have also observed low-frequency features in the photoelectron spectra tentatively attributed to the hindered rotational excitations of the encapsulated H2O molecule, providing further insights into the guest–host interactions in H2O@C60 and H2O@C59N.

Graphical abstract: Probing the interaction between the encapsulated water molecule and the fullerene cages in H2O@C60− and H2O@C59N−

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
04 Mar 2018
Accepted
02 Jun 2018
First published
04 Jun 2018
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2018,9, 5666-5671

Probing the interaction between the encapsulated water molecule and the fullerene cages in H2O@C60 and H2O@C59N

G. Zhu, Y. Liu, Y. Hashikawa, Q. Zhang, Y. Murata and L. Wang, Chem. Sci., 2018, 9, 5666 DOI: 10.1039/C8SC01031E

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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