2013 | OriginalPaper | Buchkapitel
2. Exohedral Metallofullerenes
Abstract
Fullerene-based materials have attracted considerable interest since the discovery of C60. A promising area of research concerns metal–fullerene interactions and their application to advanced nano materials, with potential use in optical and switching devices, as photoconductors, and for hydrogen storage. Moreover, transition metal complexes of fullerenes show catalytic activity in homogeneous hydrogenation of acetylenic alcohols [1] and hydroformylation of alkenes [2]. In heterogeneous catalysis, exohedral metallofullerenes are found to promote hydrogenation of olefins and acetylenes [3, 4] as well as reduction of carbon monoxide to methane [5, 6].
