Scientists from the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) recently announced that the first pilot-scale production platform of metallofullerenes had been successfully developed. In the review meeting, experts concluded that the platform meeting with the design requirements was an innovative achievement.

The platform is the first pilot-scale production line of metallofullerenes in the world, which aims to produce meatllofullerenes in a closed system, continuously, automatically and pollution-free. The platform includes all the steps from the arc discharge synthesis of metallofullerenes to the 99.5% purified product. With this platform, the quantities of these materials could be further scaled up. Several patents have been licensed.

Over the years, IHEP had been trying to synthesize metallofullerenes in large quantities and succeeded in establishing a new extraction method in 2008. By this method, gram quantities of metallofullerenes with a high purity could be isolated in one month. Since then, the new pilot-scale production platform based on this method was developed and built.

The platform paves the way for the industrialized manufacturing of the metallofullerenes. It is important for the future applications such as a therapeutic medicine of anti-cancer.