Electronic properties of Gd@C<Subscript>82</Subscript> metallofullerene peapods: (Gd@C<Subscript>82</Subscript>)<Subscript>n</Subscript>@SWNTs

Electronic properties of Gd@C₈₂ metallofullerene peapods, (Gd@C₈₂)_n@SWNTs, were investigated by electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS), scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy (STM/STS), and field-effect transistor (FET) transport measurements. The results indicate that the electronic structure of Gd@C₈₂ metallofullerene peapods is completely different from that of intact single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs). For example, Gd@C₈₂-peapod-FETs show ambipolar behavior which is not observed in the empty SWNT-FETs under our experimental conditions. Furthermore, in semiconducting nanotubes the band gap can be varied from ∼0.5 to ∼0.1 eV using inserted Gd@C₈₂ endohedral metallofullerenes with a spatial periodicity of 1.1 to 8.0 nm, depending on the density of the fullerenes. The present findings suggest that metallofullerene peapods may point the way toward novel electronic devices. Received: 6 September 2002 / Accepted: 25 October 2002 / Published online: 10 March 2003 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +81-52/789-1169, E-mail: noris@cc.nagoya-u.ac.jp     

High-resolution electron microscopy of individual metallofullerene molecules on the dipole orientations in peapods

Electron microscopy with atomic sensitivity enables us to obtain a direct image of the intra-molecular structure of metallofullerenes encapsulated inside single-walled carbon nanotubes. By a comparison of high-resolution images with a simulation to extract the relative atom positions for encaged metal atoms in each molecule, the distribution of the molecular orientations and interactions between adjacent molecules in metallofullerene peapods have been statistically analyzed. The results are suggestive of strong interactions between fullerene–fullerene and fullerene–tube in peapods at room temperature. Received: 10 October 2002 / Accepted: 25 October 2002 / Published online: 10 March 2003 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +81-298/61-6310, E-mail: suenaga-kazu@aist.go.jp     

Atomic correlation between adjacent graphene layers in double-wall carbon nanotubes

Atomic correlation between adjacent graphene layers was elucidated for double-wall carbon nanotubes (DWNTs) through a chiral index assignment of two nested nanotubes by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. Our analysis provides a rather constant diameter difference close to 0.75 nm but no chiral angle correlation between the constituent nanotubes in the concentric DWNTs. The local atomic correlation as a commensurate graphene stacking was repeatedly found in eccentric DWNTs and circumscribed nanotubes, which should lead to elastic deformation and bundling of nanotubes.     

Synthesis and actin-depolymerizing activity of mycalolide analogs

Mycalolide analog 4, consisting only of the side chain of mycalolide B (2), was stereoselectively synthesized and was found to have strong actin-depolymerizing activity.     

Nanoscale hydrophobic interaction and nanobubble nucleation

We report large-scale atomistic simulation of midrange nanoscale hydrophobic interaction, manifested by the nucleation of nanobubble between nanometer-sized hydrophobes at constrained equilibrium. When the length scale of the hydrophobes is greater than 2 nm, the nanobubble formation shows hysteresis behavior resembling the first-order transition. Calculation of the potential of mean force versus interhydrophobe distance provides a quantitative measure of the strength of the nanoscale hydrophobic interaction.     

1D Chain and 3D framework of silver(I) organo-metallic polymers self-assembled with triptycene

For the purpose of investigating the coordination behavior of sterically congested alkenes and exploring the possibility of non-planar complexation in the polycyclic aromatic system for formation of extended polymeric networks, triptycene (tpty) has been studied with regard to its complexation with the silver(I) ion. The crystal structures of [Ag(tpty)(THF)₂](ClO₄) (1) and [Ag₆(tpty)₄(CF₃SO₃)₂(H₂O)₆](CF₃SO₃)₄ (2) have been determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon triptycene is found to offer a potential site for complexation, which can be utilized to generate an interesting array of organo-metallic polymers with one-dimensional (1D) chain and three-dimensional (3D) porous frameworks.     

Pressure-induced enhancement of giant magnetoresistance due to crossover of interlayer exchange coupling in Fe/Cr multilayers

We report the first observation of a large pressure-induced enhancement of giant magnetoresistance (GMR) in magnetic multilayers (MML). In Fe/Cr MMLs with the Cr layer thickness of approximately 30 A, a crossover from biquadratic to bilinear interlayer exchange coupling (IEC) was observed by applying pressure, and simultaneously the GMR under high pressure (>2 GPa) was enhanced to be twice as large as that at ambient pressure. The enhanced GMR is attributed to the suppression of the biquadratic IEC by applying pressure, and the electrical resistivity in parallel alignment of magnetization also showed a crossover behavior, suggesting an electronic origin for the observed pressure effects.     

Characterization of graphene grown on bulk and thin film nickel

We report on graphene films grown by atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition on bulk and thin film nickel. Carbon precipitation on the polycrystalline grains is controlled by the methane concentration and substrate cooling rate. It is found that graphene grows over multiple grains, with edges terminating along the grain boundaries and with dimensions directly correlated to the size of the underlying grains. This greatly restricts the resulting graphene size (<10 μm) in the thin film growth, whereas monolayer graphene with linear dimensions of hundreds of micrometers takes up the great majority of the surface overlayers on the bulk nickel (>50%). In addition, the number of layers can be better controlled in the bulk growth. Characterizations of the graphene sheets using transmission electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and transport measurements in the field-effect configuration are also discussed.