Stability of radio-metallofullerenes against beta-decay.

The effect of β⁻-decay on the stability of metallofullerenes was investigated for three decay chains of¹⁵⁵Sm-¹⁵⁵Eu,¹⁶¹Gd-¹⁶¹Tb and¹⁷⁷Yb-¹⁷⁷Lu. For the former two cases, the metallofullerenes were found stable even after the β⁻-decay while in the case of¹⁷⁷Yb, the metallofullerene became unstable after β⁻-decay. The present results point to the fact that metallofullerenes are stable against ordinary β⁻-decay unstable after β⁻-decay. The present results point to the fact that metallofullerenes are stable against ordinary β⁻-decay recoil energies, but they become unstable if the oxidation state of the metal atom is changed by nuclear transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]