PNNL

Abstract

Experimental and theoretical evidence is reported that the icosahedral stannaspherene Sn12 2- cage can trap an atom from any of the transition-metal series or the f-elements, giving rise to a myriad of stable endohedral clusters. A selected set of M@Sn12 - cluster has been created using laser vaporization and characterized by photoelectron spectroscopy. It is shown that these clusters maintain perfect or pseudo-icosahedral symmetry with the central metal atom inducing very little distortion to the stannaspherene cage. The doped atom in M@Sn12 - keeps its quasiatomic nature with large magnetic moments. The endohedral stannaspherenes might thus be viewed as “superatoms”, yielding potentially a rich class of new building blocks for clusterassembled materials with tunable magnetic, electronic, and chemical properties.