Generation of (M = K, Rb, Cs, 2n = 80–220) by laser ablation of graphene

Abstract

Metallofullerene ions of M@C(2n)+ (M = K, Rb, Cs, 2n = 80-220) were generated by laser ablation of graphene and corresponding metal salts. Compared with previous results of alkaline earth metals, the yields of EMF ions are generally lower. However, for large-sized EMF ions, the relative intensities of EMF ions to their corresponding fullerene ions I(M@C(2n)+)/ I(C(2n)+) generally increase with the increase in cluster sizes, which is opposite to the trend observed for alkaline earth metals.

Formation of endohedral metallofullerene (EMF) ions of (M = La, Y, n ≤ 6, 50 ≤ 2m ≤ 194) in the laser ablation process with graphene as precursor

“…The mass spectrometry experiments were performed on a 7.0 T Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT‐ICR) mass spectrometer (Varian IonSpec, Lake Forest, CA, USA) equipped with a Varian ProMALDI ion source. The general experimental process is very similar to that described previously . Briefly, the ablation experiments used an Orion 355 nm Nd:YAG laser (New Wave/Electro Scientific Industries, Beaverton, OR, USA) with a typical output energy of 2.5 mJ/pulse.…”

“…Inspired by these results, we investigated the formation of endohedral metallofullerene ions from direct mixtures of graphene and metal chlorides. Endohedral metallofullerene (EMF) ions (M = K, Rb, Cs, Ca, Sr and Ba; 2m = 60–220) have previously been observed in mass spectra . The observed ions have wide distributions in their sizes.…”

A systematic study on the generation of multimetallic lanthanide fullerene ions by laser ablation mass spectrometry

“…The previously suggested top‐down mechanism can also be applied here to explain the general formation of these large‐sized, multi‐EMF ions . In this mechanism, small clusters of metal atoms and graphene flakes are formed simultaneously by the laser ablation.…”

“…Our previous studies have shown that graphene is capable of generating fullerene and EMFs, which exhibited different behavior from other carbon materials in the laser ablation MS experiments . EMF ions were synthesized by laser ablation of a graphene/MCl 3 (or MCl 4 ) mixture on a metal plate and characterized by Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FTICR) mass spectrometry (MS).…”

“…EMF ions were synthesized by laser ablation of a graphene/MCl 3 (or MCl 4 ) mixture on a metal plate and characterized by Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FTICR) mass spectrometry (MS). For alkaline metals and alkaline earth metals, mono‐EMF ions including M@ (M = Na, K, Rb, Cs, Ca, Sr and Ba, 50 ≤ 2 m ≤ 230, where the sign @ means endohedral) and less abundant di‐EMF ions (M = Ba, Ca, 80 ≤ 2 m ≤ 182) were observed . Interestingly, for the metals Y and La, in addition to the mono‐ EMF ions of , multi‐EMF ions of (50 ≤ 2 m ≤ 194) were generated .…”