SBIR PHASE I: Electrochemical Purification of Metallofullerenes

95-61553阿尔福德这个小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目将试图证明，金属富勒烯可以通过电化学过程高效、经济地提纯。金属富勒烯是封闭的碳笼分子，含有一个或多个捕获的金属原子。它们是一类独特的新型分子，具有各种潜在的工业应用。由于包裹的金属原子将其电子转移到富勒烯壳层，因此金属富勒烯的电子结构与空富勒烯的电子结构有很大不同。基于这种巨大差异的电化学提纯方法与目前的提纯方法相比，具有从根本上降低提纯金属富勒烯成本的潜力，目前的提纯方法使用非常昂贵和耗时的两步层析过程。这种层析过程的高昂成本阻碍了纯金属富勒烯的商业应用，使得研究金属富勒烯的工业应用在经济上迄今是不可行的。开发一种相对廉价、可大规模生产的电化学提纯工艺，将有助于推动金属富勒烯在超导体、电子、非线性光学和制药等领域的工业应用的发展。在第一阶段，将确定电化学提纯金属富勒烯的可行性，并计划在第二阶段进一步优化和扩大这一工艺。

95-61553 Alford This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will attempt to demonstrate that metallofullerenes can be efficiently and economically purified via electrochemical processes. Metallofullerenes are closed carbon cage molecules containing a trapped metal atom or atoms. They are a unique new class of molecules with a variety of potential industrial applications. Because the encapsulated metal atom transfers its electrons to the fullerene shell, metallofullerenes have a substantially different electronic structure than empty fullerenes. An electrochemical purification process based on this large difference has the potential of radically reducing the cost of purifying metallofullerenes as compared to the current purification method which utilizes a very expensive and time consuming two step chromatography process. The prohibitive cost of this chromatography process has prevented pure metallofullerenes from being commercially available_making research on industrial applications of metallofullerenes economically infeasible to date. Development of a relatively inexpensive electrochemical purification process that could be scaled to much larger capactities would help spur the development of industrial applications for metallofullerenes in such fields as superconductors, electronics, nonlinear optics, and pharmaceuticals. During Phase I, the feasibility of electrochemical purification of metallofullerenes will be determined, with further optimization and scale-up of this process planned for Phase II.