Perspectives Challenge and Chance

Nevertheless, availability remains as the main obstacle. Presently available amounts of EMFs are much less than are required for future applications. Use of catalysts remains as a good choice to promote the production yield, and more powerful extraction processes are also critical. More convenient and effective separation processes will surely promote the availability of EMFs. 

The formation mechanism of EMFs remains unclear. Informative results concerning the interactions between the encaged metals and the fullerene cage in isolated EMFs have been obtained, but many mysteries remain in the early stage of the arc-discharge process. Disclosure of these mysteries is helpful to increase the production yield and broaden the applications of EMFs. 

In spite of difficulties that temporarily hinder research of EMFs, the unique structures and fantastic properties of EMFs continue to attract great attention and to promise future applications yielding fruitful results. Through multilateral endeavors, EMFs will become increasingly promising and find more uses. 

This work was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (No. 20108001, pi-Space ), a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A) (No. 20245006), 

The Next Generation Super Computing Project (Nanoscience Project), and a Grant-in Aid for Scientific Research on Priority Area (Nos. 20036008, 20038007) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan. 

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