PNNL

Abstract

C120O comprises two C60 cages linked by a furan ring and is formed by reactions of C60O and C60. We have produced doubly-charged anions of this fullerene dimer (C120O2–) and studied its electronic structure and stability using photoelectron spectroscopy and theoretical calculations. High resolution and vibrationally resolved photoelectron spectra were obtained at 70 K and at several photon energies. The second electron affinity of C120O was measured to be 1.02 ± 0.03 eV and the intramolecular Coulomb repulsion was estimated to be about 0.8 eV in C120O2– on the basis of the observed repulsive Coulomb barrier. A low-lying excited state (2B1) was also observed for C120O– at 0.09 eV above the ground state (2A1). The C120O2– dianion can be viewed as a single electron on each C60 ball very weakly coupled. Theoretical calculations showed that the singlet and triplet states of C120O2– are nearly degenerate and can both be present in the experiment. The computed electron binding energies and excitation energies, as well as Franck-Condon factors, are used to help interpret the photoelectron spectra. A C-C bond-cleaved isomer, C60-O-C602–, was also observed with a higher electron binding energy of 1.54 eV.