title: Formation of Nickel Clusters Wrapped in Carbon Cages: Toward New Endohedral Metallofullerene Synthesis.
abstract: Despite the high potential of endohedral metallofullerenes (EMFs) for application in biology, medicine and molecular electronics, and recent efforts in EMF synthesis, the variety of EMFs accessible by conventional synthetic methods remains limited and does not include, for example, EMFs of late transition metals. We propose a method in which EMF formation is initiated by electron irradiation in aberration-corrected high-resolution transmission electron spectroscopy (AC-HRTEM) of a metal cluster surrounded by amorphous carbon inside a carbon nanotube serving as a nanoreactor and apply this method for synthesis of nickel EMFs. The use of AC-HRTEM makes it possible not only to synthesize new, previously unattainable nanoobjects but also to study in situ the mechanism of structural transformations. Molecular dynamics simulations using the state-of-the-art approach for modeling the effect of electron irradiation are performed to rationalize the experimental observations and to link the observed processes with conditions of bulk EMF synthesis.
authors.affiliation: National Research Centre "Kurchatov Institute" , Kurchatov Square 1, Moscow 123182, Russia.
authors.forename: Alexander S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Sinitsa
authors.affiliation: Institute of Process Research and Development, School of Chemistry, University of Leeds , Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Thomas W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Chamberlain
authors.affiliation: Group of Electron Microscopy of Materials Science, Central Facility for Electron Microscopy, Ulm University , Albert Einstein Allee 11, Ulm 89081, Germany.
authors.forename: Thilo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zoberbier
authors.affiliation: Nano-Bio Spectroscopy Group and ETSF, Universidad del País Vasco, CFM CSIC-UPV/EHU , San Sebastian 20018, Spain.
authors.forename: Irina V
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-2880-0275
authors.initials: IV
authors.lastname: Lebedeva
authors.affiliation: Institute for Spectroscopy of Russian Academy of Sciences , Fizicheskaya Street 5, Troitsk, Moscow 108840, Russia.
authors.forename: Andrey M
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-5024-5311
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Popov
authors.affiliation: National Research Centre "Kurchatov Institute" , Kurchatov Square 1, Moscow 123182, Russia.|Kintech Lab Ltd. , 3rd Khoroshevskaya Street 12, Moscow 123298, Russia.
authors.forename: Andrey A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Knizhnik
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, University of Nottingham , University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Robert L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: McSweeney
authors.affiliation: Group of Electron Microscopy of Materials Science, Central Facility for Electron Microscopy, Ulm University , Albert Einstein Allee 11, Ulm 89081, Germany.
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Biskupek
authors.affiliation: Group of Electron Microscopy of Materials Science, Central Facility for Electron Microscopy, Ulm University , Albert Einstein Allee 11, Ulm 89081, Germany.
authors.forename: Ute
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Kaiser
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, University of Nottingham , University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Andrei N
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-7738-4098
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Khlobystov
mesh_terms: D037741:Fullerenes / Q000737:chemistry*; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D056004:Molecular Dynamics Simulation; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*; D009532:Nickel / Q000737:chemistry*; D010316:Particle Size
chemical_list: D037741:Fullerenes; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; D009532:Nickel
keywords: Endohedral metallofullerenes; carbon nanotube; electron irradiation; molecular dynamics; transmission electron microscopy