Formation of endohedral metallofullerene (EMF) ions of MnC2m+ (M = La, Y, n ≤ 6, 50 ≤ 2m ≤ 194) in the laser ablation process with graphene as precursor.
BACKGROUND
Graphene has proved to be a versatile precursor for the generation of mono-endohedral metallofullerenes (EMFs) of alkali and alkali earth metal atoms. Thus, it is important to investigate whether graphene is also a good precursor for the generation of EMFs including multi-metal atoms or some transition metal atoms.


METHODS
Experiments were performed on a 7.0 T Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) mass spectrometer. Laser ablation mass spectra were obtained by laser irradiation on mixtures of graphene and LaCl3, YCl3or HAuCl4on a stainless steel plate. A 355 nm Nd:YAG laser with a typical energy of 2.5 mJ/pulse was employed in these experiments. Tandem mass spectrometry was performed by on-resonance excitation collision-induced dissociation (CID) for selected single isotopic peaks.


RESULTS
Metallofullerene La1-6C2m+/ Y1-6C2m+ ions were observed in the laser ablation mass spectra of mixtures of graphene and LaCl3/YCl3. CID and reactant gas experiments on selected ions showed that these ions had endohedral structures. Considering the experimental condition applied here, a mechanism based on a top-down process for the generation of the EMF ions is suggested. Further experiments on HAuCl4showed some weak signals of AuC2m+ for the first time.


CONCLUSIONS
Mono- and multi-EMF ions of MnC2m+ (M = La, Y, n = 1-6, 50 ≤ 2 m ≤ 194) were generated by laser ablation of graphene and the corresponding metal salts and detected by FT-ICR mass spectrometry. The results have shed light on the formation and generation of some new EMF species. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
State Key Laboratory and Institute of Elemento-Organic Chemistry, College of Chemistry, Nankai University, 300071, Tianjin, China.|Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering, Nankai University, 300071, Tianjin, China.
Xianglei
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8736-6018
X
Kong
State Key Laboratory and Institute of Elemento-Organic Chemistry, College of Chemistry, Nankai University, 300071, Tianjin, China.
Xiaodi
X
Bao