White light emission from C₆₀ molecules confined in molecular cage materials

Confining C 60 in the cages within a zeolite (see Figure) results in the modification of the optical properties of the fullerene. This possibly results from a weak interaction of the C 60 with the wall of the zeolite which is, however, strong enough to perturb the electronic structure of the C 60 resulting in otherwise forbidden transitions (e.g. white light emission) being observed. magnified image