Inventors:
Steven A. Stevenson - Hattiesburg MS, US
Harry C. Dorn - Blacksburg VA, US
Tianming Zuo - Harrisonburg VA, US
International Classification:
C09K 3/00
Abstract:
The present invention is directed to a family of trimetallic nitride endohedral metalloheterofullerenes having the formula AXN@CN, (x=0, 1, 2 or 3) (n=number of carbon atoms in the cage, typically between 59 and 199), wherein A and X are metal atoms encased within the cage, C is carbon and N is nitrogen. A and X are preferably selected from rare earth elements or group IIIB elements. A or X metal atoms are scandium, yttrium, lanthanum, gadolinium, lutetium, holmium, erbium, thulium, dysprosium, neodymium, cerium, praseodymium and ytterbium. Representative embodiments include ScN@CN, YN@CN, LaN@CN, TbN@CN, HoN@CN, LaScN@CN, PrScN@CN, GdScN@CN, LaScN@CN, and GdScN@CN. The present invention is also directed to a method of making the inventive endohedral metalloheterofullerenes having the formula AXN@CN. These methods involve use of oxidizing gases (e.g. Oand NO) coupled with combustion as a means for making trimetallic nitride clusters encapsulated in heteroatom CN cages made of both carbon and nitrogen.