Conductance and EPR study of the endohedral fullerene Li@C60

Thin films and bulk samples of endohedral fullerenes Li@C60 are studied using current–voltage (I–V) measurements and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR). Electrical measurements show a linear behaviour for the I–V curves and give an average resistivity of ca. 1.5 kΩcm for thin Li@C60 films deposited in vacuum, four orders of magnitude lower than C60 samples. A drastic effect on the conductance, lowering it to the values typical for C60, is observed when the Li@C60 samples are exposed to ambient atmosphere. No additional paramagnetic centres (PCs) are found for the Li@C60 compared to C60 that can be related to the formation of dimers or trimers of the endohedral fullerene molecules. However, the presence of the Li atoms in the fullerene cages contributes to a change of the spin–spin and spin–lattice relaxation times. The spin–lattice relaxation time becomes four orders of magnitude longer compared to the spin–spin relaxation time.