Examination of "orbiting-ion paramagnetism" in endohedral lithium(+) fullerene [Li+@C60](PF6)- crystal

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K19102
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Physical chemistry, Functional solid state chemistry, and related fields
• Research Institution: Osaka University
• Principal Investigator: Nakano Motohiro 大阪大学, 理学研究科, 教授 (00212093)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 鈴木 晴 近畿大学, 理工学部, 講師 (50633559)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-06-30 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 周回イオン常磁性 / フラーレン / 磁気共鳴 / 強磁場 / テラヘルツ分光 / 回転スペクトル

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Endohedral lithium(+) fullerene [Li+@C60](PF6)- is an ionic crystalline substance, in which the lithium ion encaged in a C60 inner space enjoys almost free orbital motion at room temperature. The motion of positively-charged lithium ion should be regarded as a ring current associated with a magnetic moment. Such magnetism of molecular species is a completely novel concept and not reported yet for crystalline substances. We temporally named it “orbiting-ion paramagnetism” and tried to clarify this interesting property. In this project, the detection of magnetic resonance signal due to “orbiting-ion paramagnetism” in [Li+@C60](PF6)- under very strong field was attempted, but failed in a series of preliminary measurements.

Free Research Field

物理化学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究では，これまでに知られている，核スピンや電子スピン，電子の軌道運動に起因する磁性などとはまったく異なる，「周回イオン常磁性」をターゲットとした．イオンの周回運動が環電流として磁気モーメントを発生する「周回イオン常磁性」が確立されれば，極めて新奇性の高い磁性材料の可能性を与えるとともに，人類の普遍的な知的財産として分子磁性の教科書のページを占めるものと考えている．