Perfluoroalkylfullerenes

New chemical derivatives that possess the greatest variety of addition patterns than any other class of fullerene derivatives represent an important addition to the existing classes of perfluorocarbons, that is, compounds that are composed only of the two types of atoms, carbon and fluorine. These include aromatic and aliphatic perfluorocarbons such as perfluorodecalin, perfluorononane, hexafluorobenzene, etc., which are important as fluorous solvents used in medicine. The propensity of perfluoroalkylfullerenes (PFAFs) to readily crystallize from organic solutions upon slow evaporation in open air provided a straightforward access to their molecular structures via X-ray crystallography. Another crucial aspect that ensures future success in the characterization of numerous PFAFs of higher fullerenes and endohedral metallofullerenes is the possibility to apply HPLC methodologies to the separation of product mixtures. PFAFs, especially those of C60 and C70, are unique fullerene derivatives in terms of the number of structurally characterized derivatives with different number of RF groups and different addition patterns

Soluble chlorofullerenes C60CI2,4,6,8,10. synthesis, purification, compositional analysis, stability, and experimental/theoretical structure elucidation, including the x-ray structure of C-1-C60Cl10

The efficacy of various analytical techniques for the characterization of products of C-60 chlorination reactions were evaluated by (i) using samples of C60Cl6 of known purity and (ii) repeating a number of literature syntheses reported to yield pure C60Cln compounds. The techniques were NMR, UV vis, IR, and Raman spectroscopy, FAB, MALDI, LDI, ESI, and APCI mass spectrometry, HPLC, TGA, elemental analysis, and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Most of these techniques are shown to give ambiguous or erroneous results, calling into question the composition and/or purity of nearly all C60Cln compounds reported to date. The optimum analytical method for chlorofullerenes was found to be a combination of HPLC and either MALDI or APCI mass spectrometry. For the first time, the chlorination of C-60 by ICl, ICl3, and Cl-2 was studied in detail using dynamic HPLC analysis and APCI mass spectrometry. Suitable conditions were found for the preparation of the new chlorofullerenes 1,7-C60Cl2, 1,9-C60Cl2, 1,6,9,18-C60Cl4, and 1,2,7,10,14,24,25,28,29,31-C60Cl10. The latter compound was also studied by C-13 NMR spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction, which led to the unambiguous determination of its asymmetric addition pattern. The unusual structure of C60Cl10 was compared with other possible isomers using DFT-predicted relative energies. These results, along with additional experimental data and an analysis of the DFT-predicted frontier orbitals of likely intermediates, were used to rationalize the formation of the new compound C60Cl10 from C60Cl6 and excess ICl without the rearrangement of any C-Cl bonds. For the first time, the stability of C60Cln compounds under a variety of conditions was studied in detail, leading to the discovery that they are, in general, very light-sensitive in solution. The X-ray structure of C60Cl6 was also redetermined with higher precision