Complexation of Fullerenes by Subphthalocyanine Dimers

Tweezer-like molecules comprised of two boron subphthalocyanine (SubPc) units were prepared by Sonogashira couplings and investigated using NMR spectroscopy for their ability to bind fullerenes (C60 and C70). The preorganization of the tweezers provided association constants of ca. 103 M–1 in toluene-d8, while a SubPc monomer did not show any association. Nevertheless, the SubPc monomer crystallized with the fullerenes as 2:1 complexes, supporting the favorable tweezer-like design for complexation, which was further corroborated by computations