ESR spectra on single crystals of alkali metal fulleride complexes by means of wet-chemical synthesis

The facile and simple wet-chemical synthesis of single crystals of alkali metal doped fullerenes was developed by means of diffusion in organic solvents of C60 and alkali metal tetraphenylborate. The single crystals MxC60(THF)y (M = Na, K) posess a hexagonal unit cell and ESR showed the existence of a typical broad C60 anion radical signal, in addition to a small sharp signal which is amenable to microwave power saturation. The existence of the spike signal is almost always involved in fullerene anion radical systems. The solid-state 23Na and solid-state 13C NMR on NaxC60(THF)y also revealed the homogeneity of the single crystal.