Research project

Molecular Endofullerenes

Research groups:

Organic Chemistry, Synthesis, Catalysis
Lead researchers:

Professor Malcolm Levitt
Other researchers:

Professor Richard Whitby
Research funder:

EPSRC
Status:

Not active

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: [email protected]

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: [email protected]

Collaborating research institutes, centres and groups

Research outputs

Scalable dissolution-dynamic nuclear polarization with rapid transfer of a polarized solid

Karel Kouril, Hana Kourilova, Samuel Bartram, Malcolm H. Levitt & Benno Meier, 2019, Nature Communications, 10

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-09726-5

Type: article

First synthesis and characterization of CH4@C60

Sally Bloodworth, Gabriela Sitinova, Shamim Alom, Sara Vidal, George, Razvan Bacanu, Stuart J Elliott, Mark Light, Julie Herniman, G. John Langley, Malcolm H. Levitt & Richard J. Whitby, 2019, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 58(15), 5038-5043

DOI: 10.1002/anie.201900983

Type: article

Spin-isomer conversion of water at room temperature, and quantum-rotor-induced nuclear polarization, in the water-endofullerene H2O@C60

Benno Meier, Karel Kouril, Christian Bengs, Hana Kourilova, Timothy Barker, Stuart Elliott, Shamim Alom, Richard J. Whitby & Malcolm H. Levitt, 2018, Physical Review Letters, 120(26), 1-6

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.266001

Type: letterEditorial

Alignment of ¹⁷O-enriched water-endofullerenes H₂O@C₆₀ in a liquid crystal matrix

Karel Kouril, Benno Meier, Shamim Alom, Richard J. Whitby & Malcolm H. Levitt, 2018, Faraday Discussions, 212, 517-532

DOI: 10.1039/C8FD00095F

Type: article

NMR lineshapes and scalar relaxation of the 17O-labelled water-endofullerene H2O@C60

Stuart J. Elliott, Christian Bengs, Karel Kouril, Benno Meier, Shamim Alom, Richard J. Whitby & Malcolm H. Levitt, 2018, ChemPhysChem, 19, 251-255

DOI: 10.1002/cphc.201701330

Type: article