The Macroscopic Preparation of Endohedral Metallofullerene

Endohedral metallofullerenes (EMFs) have attracted broad interests because of their unique structures with novel physical and chemical properties. However, thorough investigations on their properties and applications have been hampered and less studied since it is difficult to get enough amounts of metallofullerenes. In 2008, we established a new extraction method so that the content of metallofullerenes in the raw extract could be raised to 80% and gram quantities of Gd@C₈₂, La@C₈₂, Y@C₈₂, Ho@C₈₂ and Er@C₈₂ have been purified in one month. Based on this method, we established a scaling-up pilot plant in 2012, by which tens grams of metallofullerenes with a high purity of 99.5% have been acquired in one month. Gram quantities of metallofullerenes are important toward developing future materials such as biological applications.