SYNTHESIS OF La@C2n BY DIRECT La-FULLERENE REACTIONS IN THE LASER-ABLATION PLASMA OF A La2O3/FULLERENE MIXTURE

Reaction of excimer laser (XeCl, 308 nm) vaporized and excited fullerenes with La was carried out in a mixture of fullerenes and La 2 O 3. The reaction products La@C 60, La @60−2n, and La@C 60+2m were identified by a reflectron-type time-of-flight mass spectrometer (RTOFMS). The endohedral nature of these metallofullerenes is discussed in terms of a “window” mechanism. As an initial effort, a macroscopic amount of La@C 2n was also collected by this method and confirmed by laser-desorption time-of-flight mass analysis.