The charge-induced reversible rearrangement of endohedral fullerenes: Electrochemistry of tridysprosium nitride clusterfullerenes Dy3N@C2n (2n = 78, 80)

ANYL 339

Shangfeng Yang, s.yang@ifw-dresden.de1, Michal Zalibera2, Peter Rapta2, and Lothar Dunsch, l.dunsch@ifw-dresden.de1. (1) Group of Electrochemistry and Conducting Polymers, Leibniz-Institute for Solid State and Materials Research (IFW) Dresden, Helmholtzstr. 20, Dresden, 01069, Germany, (2) Department of Physical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology, Slovak University of Technology, Radlinskeho 9, Bratislava, 81237, Slovak Republic
The electrochemistry of three new clusterfullerenes Dy3N@C2n (2n = 78, 80), namely two isomers of Dy3N@C80 (I and II) as well as Dy3N@C78 (II), is studied systematically including the redox reaction mechanism. Cyclic voltammogram (CV) of Dy3N@C80 (I) (Ih) exhibits two electrochemically irreversible but chemically reversible reduction steps and one reversible oxidation step. Such a redox pattern is quite different from Sc3N@C80 (I), and this is understood by considering their difference on the charge transfer from the encaged cluster to the cage. A double-square reaction scheme is proposed to explain the observed redox reaction behavior, involving the charge-induced reversible rearrangement of the Dy3N@C80 (I) monoanion. For Dy3N@C80 (II) (D5h), its first oxidation potential experiences a negative shift of 290 mV with respect to Dy3N@C80 (I) (Ih), indicating that lowering the molecular symmetry of the clusterfullerene cage results in the prominent increase of the electron donating property. Dy3N@C78 (II) gives obvious negative shifts in the first and second reduction potential compared to Dy3N@C80 (I, II), pointing to its lowered electron accepting ability. The significant difference on the electrochemical engergy gap of Dy3N@C80 (I), Dy3N@C80 (II), and Dy3N@C78 (II) is consistent with their difference on the optical energy gap.