Size effect of fullerene cages and encaged clusters in M3N@C2n

• 来源期刊: 中国科学B辑（英文版）
• 年，卷（期）: 2009,（5）
• 页码范围: 584-589
• 页数: 6页
• 语种: 英文
• DOI: 10.1007/s11426-009-0070-7

摘要

Based on the calculated findings that the sizes of encaged clusters determine the structures and the stability of C80-based trimetallic nitride fullerenes (TNFs), more extensive density functional theory calculations were performed on M3N@C68, M3N@C78 and M3N@C80 (M=Sc, Y and La). The calculated results demonstrated that the structures and stability undergo a transition with the increasing of the sizes of the cages and clusters. Sc3N is planar inside the three considered cages, Y3N is slightly pyramidal inside C68-6140 and C78-5 and planar inside Ih C80-7, however, La3N is pyramidal inside all the three cages. Those cages with pyramidal clusters inside deformed considerably, compared with their parent cages. In these cases, the bonding of metallic atoms toward the cages does not play an impor-tant role, and the encaged cluster tends to be located inside the cages with the largest M-M and M-C distances so that the strain energy can be released mostly. These calculations revealed the size effect of fullerene cages and encaged clusters, and can explain the position priority of M3N inside fullerene cages and the differences in yield of M3N@C2n.