Designing stable binary endohedral fullerene lattices.

Nanoparticle lattices and endohedral fullerenes have both been identified as potential building blocks for future electronic, magnetic and optical devices; here it is proposed that it could be possible to combine those concepts and design stable nanoparticle lattices composed from binary collections of endohedral fullerenes. The inclusion of an atom, for example Ca or F, within a fullerene cage is known to be accompanied by a redistribution of surface charge, whereby the cage can acquire either a negative (Ca) or positive (F) charge. From calculations involving a combination of van der Waals and many-body electrostatic interactions, it is predicted that certain binary combinations, for example a metal (A) and a halogen (B), could result in the formation of stable nanoparticle lattices with the familiar AB and AB