Explaining the symmetry breaking observed in the endofullerenes H2@C60, HF@C60, and H2O@C60Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/c7cp06062a

Symmetry breaking has been recently observed in the endofullerenes M@C 60 (M = H 2 , HF, H 2 O), manifesting in the splittings of the three-fold degenerate ground states of the endohedral ortho -H 2 , ortho -H 2 O and the j = 1 level of HF. The nature of the interaction causing the symmetry breaking is established in this study. A fragment of the solid C 60 is considered, comprised of the central C 60 molecule surrounded by twelve nearest-neighbor (NN) C 60 molecules. The fullerenes have either P (major) or H (minor) orientational orderings, and are assumed to be rigid with I h symmetry. Only the central C 60 is occupied by the guest molecule M, while the NN fullerenes are all empty. The key proposition of the study is that the electrostatic interactions between the charge densities on the NN C 60 molecules and that on M inside the central C 60 give rise to the symmetry breaking responsible for the measured level splittings. Using this model, the M@C 60 level splittings of interest are calculated variationally and using perturbation theory, for both the P and H orientations. Those obtained for the dominant P orientation are in excellent agreement with the experimental results, with respect to the splitting magnitudes and patterns, for all three M@C 60 systems considered, pointing strongly to the quadrupolar M-NN interactions as the main cause of the symmetry breaking. The level splittings calculated for the H orientation are about 30 times smaller than the ones in the P orientation. Symmetry breaking has been recently observed in the endofullerenes M@C 60 (M = H 2 , HF, H 2 O), manifesting in the splittings of the three-fold degenerate ground states of the endohedral ortho -H 2 , ortho -H 2 O and the j = 1 level of HF.