Giant motion of La atom inside C82 cage

An anomalous charge density distribution of La atom encapsulated in a C-82 cage has been revealed for La@C-82 by the maximum entropy method (MEM)/Rietveld analysis using synchrotron powder diffraction data. The obtained La atom charge density shows a feature almost like a bowl or a hemisphere, suggesting that the La atom has a giant motion (large amplitude motion) inside the C-82 cage at room temperature. From the obtained MEM charge density, the main results are (1) the cage structure of La@C-82 (I) has C-2 nu symmetry; (2) La atom locates at an off-centered position adjacent to a six-membered ring of the carbon cage; (3) the nearest La-C distance is 2.55(8) Angstrom and (4) the amount of charge transfer from the La atom to the carbon cage is about 3.2 e, which corresponds to the nominal electronic structure, La3+@C-82(3-). (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.