Endohedral Stannaspherenes M@Sn_(12)~- : A Rich Class of Stable Molecular Cage Clusters

摘要

Since the discovery and bulk synthesis of fullerenes,there have been great expectations in cluster science to uncover other stable atomic clusters that may be used as building blocks for cluster-assembled nanomaterials.The heavy congeners of carbon in Group 14 were not known to form fullerene-like empty cage structures until very recently,when it was discovered serendipitously that a 12-atom Sn cluster forms a highly stable empty cage (Sn_(12)~(2-),stannaspherene) with a large inner diameter (6.1 A) that is only slightly smaller than that of C_(60).