A POSSIBLE ROUTE TO MACROSCOPIC FORMATION OF ENDOHEDRAL FULLERENES

A possible mechanism to encapsulate atoms in the internal cavities of C-60 and higher fullerenes is proposed. It involves the production of C-60 molecules with two carbon isotopes C-A and C-B (A,B = 12,13,14). The molecules (C59C1)-C-A-C-B and (C58C2)-C-A-C-B are separated from t he total production and collected in a chamber under partial pressure of the element to be inserted. The proposed mechanism is to excite sel ectively the minority isotopes by laser irradiation in such a way that the bonds formed by the excited atoms are stretched to open a gate, a llowing the foreign atoms to get into the distorted cages. The calcula tion of the electronic structure and the energy needed to deform C-60 supports this insertion mechanism.