Cluster Opened Fullerene Derivatives

In a number of groundbreaking explorations,46 Wudl, Hummelen, and coworkers showed that photoinduced [2 + 2] cycloaddition of singlet oxygen to one of the electron-rich enamine-type double bonds of azahomo [60] fullerene derivative 53 (Scheme 1.8), followed by decomposition of the 1,2-dioxetane intermediate (not shown), led to ketolactam ( )-54, the first cluster-opened fullerene with a free orifice.153 Under synthetic conditions mimicking events observed in the gas phase,154 acid-induced loss of 2-methoxyethanol from... 

So far, all efforts to generate, isolate and characterize heterofuUerenes via Kratsch-mer-Huffman vaporization of graphite in the presence of hetero-element-containing compounds such as boron nitride (BN) or cyanogen (CN)2 have failed. An alternative route for the direct formation of heterofuUerenes is cluster rearrangement within exohedral fullerene derivatives such as iminofullerenes and azafuUeroids. The first hints of success by this approach were obtained from mass spectrometry investigations of the cis-l-diazabishomo[60]fullerene 3 [12], the n-butylamine adduct 4 [12] the 1,2-epiminofullerene 5 [11] and the cluster opened ketolactam 6 [2]. 

The accessibility of the fullerenes [1] in macroscopic quantities [2] opened up the unprecedented opportunity to develop a rich three-dimensional chemistry of spherical and polyfunctional all carbon molecules. [3-8] A large multitude of fullerene derivatives like exohedral covalent addition products, salts, cluster opened and defined degradation products, heterofullerenes and endohedral derivatives can be imagined and numerous examples, especially of covalent adducts have been synthesized and characterized. [3-8] Within a few years the fullerenes became essential building blocks in organic chemistry. Most of the chemistry of fullerenes has so far been carried out with Ceo (1) with little work on C70 and few experiments with C76 and Cg4. This is simply due to the fact that Ceo... 

The prototype of all fullerenes is Buckminsterfullerene ,. Since it is the most abundant fiillerene obtained from macroscopic preparation procedures such as the classical Kratschmer-Huffman method, its chemical and physical properties were developed in very quick sucession soon after it became available in 1990. The icosahedral football shaped Buckminsterfrdlerene 60 is now the most intensively studied molecule of all. Many principles of the chemistry of C , are known. These allowone to tailor design new fuUerene derivates with specific properties useful for biological applications or as new materials. The main types of fullerene derivative are exohedral addition products, endohedral fullerenes, heterofullerenes and cluster opened systems. Whereas many examples of the first two groups are already known, sophisticated methods for the synthesis of the latter two groups have started to emerge only recently. 

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