SBIR PHASE II: Production of Endohedral Metallofullerenes

*莱特9527836这个小企业创新研究第二阶段项目将开发一种连续生产面内金属富勒烯(含包裹金属原子的富勒烯(S))的方法，并开发一种将它们从空富勒烯中分离出来的经济方法。金属富勒烯形成了一类独特的新分子，其石墨状富勒烯外壳同时保护被捕获的反应金属原子免受外部环境的影响，同时还提供了富勒烯官能团，可以很容易地用于金属富勒烯的衍生或连接到载体分子和底物上。此外，由于捕获的金属原子和富勒烯壳层之间发生电子相互作用，金属富勒烯有望具有广泛的不同寻常的电子和磁性。金属富勒烯在超导、非线性光学和医学成像药物等领域具有潜在的应用前景。遗憾的是，由于生产成本很高，金属富勒烯的性能和应用的研究和开发进展缓慢。金属富勒烯目前是通过使用掺杂石墨的碳弧汽化的间歇工艺来生产的。使用这种方法的生产成本如此之高，以至于金属富勒烯目前还无法在商业上获得。在这个项目的第一阶段，开发了一种新的、截然不同的合成方法，它是连续的、操作简单的，并且可以扩展到大的工业相关能力。第二阶段将提高这一新工艺的效率，并研究扩大金属富勒烯生产和提纯的方法。该二期项目开发的生产和分离工艺能够满足对金属富勒烯的研究需求。从长远来看，这种新的生产方法预计将把金属富勒烯的成本降低到每克不到10美元，并允许它们在医学成像、非线性光学、新型超导体和许多其他应用中使用。***

*** Wright 9527836 This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project will develop a continuous method for the production of endohedral metallofullerenes (fullerenes containing encapsulated metal atom(s)) and an economical method of separating them from the empty fullerenes. The metallofullerenes form a unique new class of molecules whose graphite like fullerene shell simultaneously protects the trapped, reactive metal atom from the outside environment while also provide a fullerene functional group that can be readily used for derivation or attachment of the metallofullerene to carrier molecules and substrates. Additionally, because of electronic interactions that occur between the trapped metal atom and the fullerene shell, the metallofullerenes are expected to possess a broad range of unusual electronic and magnetic properties. The metallofullerenes have potential applications in such diverse areas as superconductivity, nonlinear optics, and pharmaceuticals for medical imaging. Unfortunately, progress on the research and development of metallofullerene properties and applications has been slow due to the very high production costs. Metallofullerenes are currently produced by a batch process using carbon arc vaporization of doped graphite. The production costs using this method are so high that metallofullerenes are currently not commercially available. During Phase I of this project, a new, dramatically different synthesis method that is continuous, simple to operated, and scaleable to large industrially relevant capacities was developed. Phase II will improve the efficiency of this new process and investigate methods for scaling-up both production and purification of the metallofullerenes. The production and separation processes developed in this Phase II project are capable of meeting the research demands for metallofullerenes. In the long term, this new production method is projected to lower the cost of metallofullerenes to less than $10/gram and allow their use in medical i maging, nonlinear optics, novel superconductors, and a host of other applications. ***