Fullerenes and endohedral fullerenes have drawn broad attention because of their unique structures and novel properties. We have made great progress in the research involving the synthesis, separation, and functionalization of the unconventional fullerenes and endohedral metallofullerenes.

　　1.　  synthesis of unconventional fullerenes and endohedral metallofullerenes

　　2.　  fullerene nanomaterials and nanodevices

　　3.　  functionalized fullerenes for biomedical applications

　　Selected research work

　　1. We have produced the stable compound Sc4C2@C80-Ih and characterized it as a metal carbide endofullerene by FTIR and Raman spectroscopies in combination with DFT calculations. Furthermore, DFT calculations have demonstrated that this molecule has a Russian-doll-type structure, C2@Sc4@C80. (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2009,131,16646-16647)

　　2.the paramagnetic properties of Sc3C2@C80 were tuned by exohedral modification. The 5,6-ring junction was determined to be the reaction site for the Sc3C2@C80 fulleropyrrolidine monoadduct, and the endohedral Sc3C2 cluster was deformed by the pyrrolidine addend. Most importantly, the pyrrolidine addend changes the spin density distributions and alters the paramagnetic properties of Sc3C2@C80 fulleropyrrolidine as a result. The dynamics of Sc3C2 endocluster were also discussed to elucidate the variable properties caused by the exohedral addend. Such controllable molecular paramagnetism is of great significance to the construction of novel molecular devices. (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2010, 49, 1786 –1789)

　　3. The endohedral fullerene Sc3NC@C80-Ih has been synthesized and characterized; it has an unprecedented planar quinary cluster in a fullerene cage. It is also the first chemical compound in which the presence of an unprecedented (NC)3- trianion has been disclosed. The fascinating intramolecular dynamics in Sc3NC@C80-Ih enables the whole molecule to display high polarity and promising ferroelectricity. This finding inspires the possibility that such a planar quinary cluster may be useful in constructing many other endohedral fullerenes. (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2010, 132, 16362-16364) Following the first isolation of Sc3NC@C80, a second member of this family of endohedral metallofullerenes, Sc3NC@C78, was prepared by an arc-discharging method. (J. Phys. Chem. C, 2011, 115, 23755–23759)

　　4. Highly impressionable electron spin was found in endohedral azafullerene Y2@C79N at low temperature or upon exohedral chemical modification. These external stimulations can be employed to manipulate the spin-active Y2@C79N and can further be used in quantum processes for promising information-carrying spin systems and molecular devices. (Chem. Commun., 2012, 48, 11570-11572)

　　5. Dihydronaphthyl-based [60]fullerene bisadducts (NC60BA) was synthesized and explored as the acceptor in polymer solar cells. The NC60BA has higher LUMO energy level than PCBM. The higher LUMO of NC60BA resulting in the higher open-circuit voltage was the key for P3HT-based PSCs to achieve better performance. A power conversion efficiency of 5.37% was achieved from the P3HT:NC60BA solar cell with a higher open-circuit voltage of 0.82 V. For further improving the visible absorption of the fullerene derivative, the dihydronaphthyl based [70]fullerene bisadduct derivative (NC70BA) was synthesized and explored as an acceptor in PSCs. Consequently, the PSC based on the blend of P3HT and NC70BA shows a high open-circuit voltage (0.83 V) and a high power conversion efficiency (5.95%), (Adv. Funct. Mater. 2012, 22: 2187-2193)

　　6. We evaluate the efficiency of various types of water-soluble carboxylfullerenes as photosensitizer and investigate the mechanism involved in the photocytotoxicity. The results indicated that malonic acid modified C70 fullerenes (C70-carboxylfullerenes) is an efficient photosensitizer, which exhibit marked photoinduced cell death while irradiated by visible light (400-700 nm) as C70 has the much more extendedπ-system. C70-carboxylfullerenes show strong inhibitory effect on cell viability at a low concentration of 2.5 µM under light irradiation for 30 min at the power of 20 mW/cm2.

　　7. An easy method was developed to fabricate a new type of magnetic resonance imaging/fluorescent integrative molecular imaging probe based on Gd@C82. The functionalized gadofulleride Gd@C82O~14(OH)~14(NH2)~6 not only exhibits an order of magnitude larger relaxivity (47.0 ± 0.8 mM-1s-1 at 0.5 T) than commercially used gadopentetic acid (4.5 ± 0.1 mM-1s-1) under the same condition. Multi-wavelength emission features derived from the multi-wavelength excitation for dual-modality diagnosis, but also highly efficient scavenging capability toward hydroxyl radicals. Gadofullerenes encapsulating one or more paramagnetic gadolinium ions, inherit advantages of both the fullerene cage and encapsulated Gd3+ ions.