Electronic structures and spectral properties of endohedral fullerenes

Endohedral fullerenes belong to a new class of compounds which are technologically and scientifically important owing to their unique structures and optoelectronic properties. This review focuses on theoretical calculations and spectroscopic (electronic, vibrational, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)) studies of endohedral fullerenes thus far published. A theoretical background, with various computational methods used for determining energy-optimized electronic structure and calculation of vibrational spectra, is presented. Further, theoretical and spectroscopic investigations of individual endohedral fullerenes are discussed. Such studies provide structural information about the carbon cage, position of the encapsulated species, and the degree of charge transfer. In particular, 13C NMR spectroscopy is indispensable for the determination of the cage symmetry. In some cases, NMR signals from 45Sc encapsulated species yield information about dynamic behavior inside the cage. Vis-NIR absorption spectra determine the HOMO-LUMO band-gap energy. IR and Raman spectroscopy play an important role in elucidating the nature of interaction between the cage and encapsulated species. Novel vibrations resulting from these interactions appear in the low-frequency region, and the corresponding force constants serve as a measure of the strength of their interaction.