将稀土金属原子或原子簇嵌入富勒烯内部空腔中可以得到一系列具有独特结构和性质的新型稀土化合物。稀土元素具有丰富多变的荧光特性，然而内嵌在富勒烯空腔中的稀土离子的发光通常被碳笼严重猝灭，目前实验上仅有铒离子在富勒烯内的发光被观测到。如何抑制碳笼对金属离子发光的猝灭是当前研究中的一个难题。本项目提出，通过对富勒烯碳笼进行共价修饰改变碳笼的电子结构，抑制碳笼对稀土离子近红外发射的淬灭，提高金属富勒烯的发光效率。结合实验研究和量子化学计算，揭示稀土金属富勒烯发光性质的关键影响因素，完善对金属富勒烯发光机制的理解。在此基础上发现新的近红外荧光活性金属富勒烯物种，并将金属富勒烯的荧光研究从铒元素拓展到钕、铥等更多的稀土元素，从而获得更丰富的荧光性质。本项目将深化我们对金属富勒烯分子结构与光学性质之间关系的理解，同时将为金属富勒烯在光学方面的应用提供新的思路。

Encapsulation of rare-earth metal atoms or clusters in the interior hollow space of fullerenes affords rare-earth compounds with unique structures and properties. Rare-earth metals have versatile luminescence properties. However, the photoluminescence of rare-earth metal ions inside fullerene cages are usually quenched by the fullerene cages. Only the photoluminescence of erbium ion inside fullerene cages has been observed before. It is a great challenge to obtain endohedral rare-earth metallofullerenes with high photoluminescence efficiencies. The heart of the current project is to improve the luminescent efficiency of rare-earth metallofullerenes through covalent modification of fullerene cages. We plan to explore the crucial factors that affect the luminescence properties of rare-earth metallofullerenes experimentally and theoretically so as to obtain a better understanding of the luminescence mechanism. One purpose of this project is to discover new rare-earth metallofullerenes other than erbium metallofullerenes that emit near-infrared lights. This project will provide important information on the relation between molecular structures and optical properties of metallofullerenes, and it will motivate further studies on optical applications of metallofullerenes.