View all research projects
Research project

Molecular Endofullerenes

Project overview

This project consists of the synthesis and multidisciplinary investigation of small molecules trapped inside fullerene cages. The host molecules in these unique molecular systems behave as quantum rotors and exhibit phenomena such as spin isomerism, spin isomer conversion, quantised molecular motion, and quantum-rotor induced hyperpolarization.

Staff

Lead researchers

Professor Malcolm Levitt

Professor of Chemistry

Research interests

  • Magnetic Resonance
  • Endofullerenes
Connect with Malcolm

Email: mhl@soton.ac.uk

Other researchers

Professor Richard Whitby

Professor of Chemistry

Research interests

  • Synthesis, properties and application of atomic and molecular endofullerenes.
  • The use of flow chemistry for the rapid acquisition of mechanistic and process information.
  • The synthesis of polyaromatic molecules for optoelectronic applications.
Connect with Richard

Email: R.J.Whitby@soton.ac.uk

Collaborating research institutes, centres and groups

Research outputs

A solid state intramolecular Wittig reaction enables efficient synthesis of endofullerenes including Ne@C60, 3He@C60 and HD@C60
Gabriela Hoffman, Mark C. Walkey, John Gräsvik, George R. Bacanu, Shamim Alom, Sally Bloodworth, Mark E. Light, Malcolm H. Levitt & Richard John Whitby, 2021, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 60(16), 8960-8966
DOI: 10.1002/anie.202100817
Type: article
Rotational coherence of encapsulated ortho and para water in fullerene-C60 revealed by time-domain terahertz spectroscopy
Sergey S. Zhukov, Vasileios Balos, Gabriela Hoffman, Shamim Alom, Mikhail Belyanchikov, Mehmet Nebioglu, Seulki Roh, Artem Pronin, George Razvan Bacanu, Pavel Abramov, Martin Wolf, Martin Dressel, Malcolm H. Levitt, Richard J. Whitby, Boris Gorshunov & Mohsen Sajadi, 2020, Scientific Reports, 10(1)
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-74972-3
Type: article
Bond dissociation and reactivity of HF and H2O in a nano test tube
Johannes Biskupek, Stephen T. Skowron, Craig T. Stoppiello, Graham A. Rance, Shamim Alom, Kayleigh L. Y. Fung, Richard J. Whitby, Malcolm H. Levitt, Quentin M. Ramasse, Ute Kaiser, Elena Besley & Andrei N. Khlobystov, 2020, ACS Nano, 14(9), 11178-11189
DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.0c02661
Type: article
Synthesis of Ar@C60 using molecular surgery
Sally Bloodworth, Gabriela Hoffman, Mark Walkey, George Razvan Bacanu, Julie Herniman, Malcolm H. Levitt & Richard J. Whitby, 2020, Chemical Communications, 56(72), 10521-10524
DOI: 10.1039/D0CC04201C
Type: article
The endofullerene HF@C60: Inelastic neutron scattering spectra from quantum simulations and experiment, validity of the selection rule and symmetry breaking
Minzhong Xu, Peter M. Felker, Salvatore Mamone, Anthony J. Horsewill, Stéphane Rols, Richard J. Whitby & Zlatko Bačić, 2019, The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, 10(18), 5365-5371
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.9b02005
Type: article