Synthesis of Empty and Endohedral Fullerenes for Potential Applications in Photovoltaic Devices
Project Leaders: L. Echegoyen
Collaborators:
Research Goals:
Our research group is interested in the structures and electronic properties of empty and endohedralfullerenes as well as in their reactivity and functionalization. We are also interested in their direct applications in solar cells, both in organic bulk heterojunction (BHJ) as well as in organic-inorganic hybrid Perovskite solar cells, since the fullerenes are both excellent electron acceptors as well as transporters.
Unique endohedral fullerenes encapsulating a wide variety of metals and metal clusters are also synthesized in our group and fully characterized. Recently we have been involved in the synthesis of Uranium-based endohedral fullerenes. Totally new and unprecedented bonding motifs are being discovered, like a novel U=C=U cluster encapsulated in a C80or C78carbon cage. These unprecedented structures and bonding characteristics are also the subject of theoretical calculations designed to probe the unique atomic and molecular orbitals involved and the formal charges on the encapsulated metal atoms and clusters.