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Structure and bonding in alkali-metal-doped C60

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Abstract

IT has been shown recently that MxC60 (M = alkali metal) is metallic at 300 K for some M and x (ref. 1) and superconducts below 18 K for M = potassium2. These observations give further impetus to studies of the molecular3 and solid-state4 properties of fullerenes. Here we report on X-ray diffraction studies of the structure and bonding in alkali-metal-doped solid C60 (fullerite). Powder diffraction data obtained from equilibrium compositions of C60 doped to saturation with K or Cs show that the face-centred cubic lattice of pure C60 (refs 5–7) transforms to body-centred cubic at these doping levels, with a saturation composition close to M6C60. The rotational disorder of the fullerene molecules in pure C60 at 300 K is absent in the fully doped compounds.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19104-6272, USA

    Otto Zhou, John E. Fischer, Nicole Coustel, Stefan Kycia, Qing Zhu, Andrew R. McGhie, William J. Romanow, John P. McCauley Jr & Amos B. Smith III

  2. Department of Physics, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York, 11973, USA

    David E. Cox

Authors
  1. Otto Zhou
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  2. John E. Fischer
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  3. Nicole Coustel
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  4. Stefan Kycia
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  5. Qing Zhu
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  6. Andrew R. McGhie
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  7. William J. Romanow
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  8. John P. McCauley Jr
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  9. Amos B. Smith III
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  10. David E. Cox
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Zhou, O., Fischer, J., Coustel, N. et al. Structure and bonding in alkali-metal-doped C60. Nature 351, 462–464 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1038/351462a0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/351462a0

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