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Synthesis of Ar@C60 is described, using a route in which high-pressure argon filling of an open-fullerene and photochemical desulfinylation are the key steps for >95% encapsulation of the noble gas. Enrichment by recycling HPLC leads to quantitative incorporation of argon in the product endofullerene, with a mass recovery of tens of milligrams, allowing the first characterisation of fine structure in the solution 13C NMR spectrum.

The endohedral fullerene CH4@C60, in which each C60 fullerene cage encapsulates a single methane molecule, has been synthesised for the first time. CH4 is the largest molecule, with the greatest number of atoms, to have been encapsulated in C60 to date. The key orifice contraction step, a photochemical desulfinylation of an open fullerene, was successfully completed, even though it is significantly inhibited by the presence of the endohedral molecule. The 13C NMR resonance for the cage nuclei in CH4@C60 is deshielded by Dd = +0.52 ppm relative to C60. The crystal structure of the nickel(II) octaethylporphyrin / benzene solvate shows no significant distortion of the carbon cage, relative to the C60 analogue, and shows the methane hydrogens as a shell of electron density around the central carbon, indicative of the quantum nature of the methane, existing in a set of quantised rotational-translational states at 100 K. The 1H and 13C spin-lattice relaxation times (T1) for endohedral methane havebeen measured. The 1H T1 values are similar to those observed in the gas phase, also indicating that methane is freely rotating inside the C60 cage. The 1H relaxation rate constant T1 -1 increases with increasing temperature and suggests a significant spin-rotation contribution to the relaxation. The successful synthesis of CH4@C60 opens a route to endofullerenes incorporating larger guest molecules than those encapsulated previously.

The solution-state 13C NMR spectrum of the endofullerene 3He@C60 displays a doublet structure due to a J-coupling of magnitude 77.5 ± 0.2 mHz at 340K between the 3He nucleus and a 13C nucleus of the enclosing carbon surface. The J-coupling increases in magnitude with increasing temperature. Quantum chemistry calculations successfully predict the approximate magnitude of the coupling. This observation shows that the mutual proximity of molecular or atomic species is sufficient to induce a finite scalar nuclear spin-spin coupling, providing that translational motion is restricted by confinement. The phenomenon may have applications to the study of surface interactions and to mechanically bound species.