Hydrocarbons Fullerenes

The found parallels between donor activity in a series of aromatic hydrocarbons, fullerene solubility in these hydrocarbons and their reactivity relative to electrophilic attack (series 2) will become regular if the process of C6o dissolution in aromatic hydrocarbons is considered as an intermediate stage for the reaction of electrophilic substitution in an aromatic series. 

The study of the effects induced by ion irradiation of solid materials, in particular solid carbons, is relevant in many fields of science and technology. Here we focus on its relevance in astrophysics. Solid carbon-bearing species are extremely abundant in space both in the gas and in the solid phases. A wide variety of solid carbons are observed in the interstellar and circumstellar medium as well as in many objects of the Solar System including those collected at or nearby Earth (interplanetary dust particles and meteorites). Observed and/or predicted carbon-bearing solids (or large molecules) include species with different hybridizations (sp, sp, sp" ) such as amorphous carbons, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, fullerenes, nanodiamonds, graphite, and carbon chain molecules. The literature in the field is enormous interesting reviews can be found in a recent special volume of Speetroehimica Acta [1]. 

The H C ratio in hydrocarbons is indicative of the hydrogen deficiency of the system. As mentioned, the highest theoretical H C ratio possible for hydrocarbon is 4 (in CH4), although in electron-deficient carbocationic compounds such as CH5 and even CH/, the ratio is further increased (to 5 and 6, respectively, see Chapter 10). On the other end of the scale in extreme cases, such as the dihydro- or methylene derivatives of recently discovered Cgo and C70 fullerenes, the H C ratio can be as low as 0.03. 

Physical properties of Fullerene C q. It does not melt below 360°, and starts to sublime at 300° in vacuo. It is a mustard coloured solid that appears brown or black with increasing film thickness. It is soluble in common organic solvents, particularly aromatic hydrocarbons which give a beautiful magenta colour. Toluene solutions are purple in colour. Sol in (5mg/mL), but dissolves slowly. Crysts of C o are both needles and plates. 

During the last years, several authors have reported the production of carbon nanotubes by the catalytic decomposition of hydrocarbons in the presence of metals[l-5]. More recently, carbon nanotubes were also found as by-products of arc-discharge[6] and hydrocarbon flame[7] production of fullerenes. 

Reduction of fullerenes to fullerides — Reversible electrochemical reduction of Ceo in anhydrous dimethylformamide/toluene mixtures at low temperatures leads to the air-sensitive coloured anions Qo" , ( = 1-6). The successive mid-point reduction potentials, 1/2, at -60°C are -0.82, -1.26, -1.82, -2.33, —2.89 and —3.34 V, respectively. Liquid NH3 solutions can also be used. " Ceo is thus a very strong oxidizing agent, its first reduction potential being at least 1 V more positive than those of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. C70 can also be reversibly reduced and various ions up to... 

Fullerenes. Fullerenes are a family of aromatic hydrocarbons, based on the parent buckminsterfullerene (108 that have a variety of very... 

Kuhn s carbanion analogues, [44 ], [45 ] and [46 ], have recently been synthesized, and the precursor hydrocarbons [44]-H, [45]-H and [46J-H dissociate into the respective anions in DMSO to show deep blue colours without any added base (Kinoshita et al., 1994). A fullerene anion, Bu Qb [47 ], has also been obtained as a stable carbanion (Fagan et al., 1992) its lithium salt has been isolated in the form Li [47 ]-4MeCN or Li [47"]-3-4THF. Several stable all-hydrocarbon anions of precursor hydrocarbons with low pKa values ( 7) are listed in Table 2, along with their oxidation potentials, ox-... 

The mechanism for the formation of complex hydrocarbons through fullerenes is loosely taken from Helden et al.119 and Hunter et al.,120 and is depicted in Figure 2. As in the work of Thaddeus,117 linear carbon clusters grow via carbon insertion and radiative association reactions, although in this case a large number of additional reactions involving neutral atoms such as C, O, and H and neutral molecules such as H2 are also included. Reactions with H and H2 serve to produce... 

Figure 2. The new species added to our chemical models of interstellar clouds. The species range in complexity from 10-64 carbon atoms and comprise the following groups of molecules linear carbon chains, monocyclic rings, tricyclic rings, and fullerenes. The synthetic pathways are also indicated. See ref. 83. Reproduced from the International Journal of Mass Spectrometry and Ion Processes, vol. 149/150, R.P.A. Bettens, Eric Herbst "The interstellar gas phase production of highly complex hydrocarbons construction of a model", pp 321-343 (1995) with kind permission from Elsevier Science-NL, Sara Burgerhartstraat 25,1055 KV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons such as fluoranthrene or Cso-fullerene are structures of great interest A straightforward entrance to analogues and partial structure, respectively, has now been developed by de Meijere and coworkers [89], using a combination of a Suzuki and a Heck-type coupling. Thus, reaction of 1,8-dibromophenanthrene 6/1-166 and obromphenylboronic acid 6/1-167 employing 20 mol% of the Pd° catalyst led to 6/1-168 and 6/1-169 in 54% yield as a Id-mixture (Scheme 6/1.45). 

Now and then, projectiles from outer space cause excitement and surprises, as in January 2000, when a meteorite impacted the frozen surface of Lake Targish in Canada. It was a new type of C-chondrite with a carbon concentration of 4-5%, and probably came from a D-type asteroid (Hiroi et al., 2001). More exact analysis of the Targish meteorite showed the presence of a series of mono- and dicarboxylic acids as well as aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons (Pizzarello et al., 2001). Aromatic compounds and fullerenes were detected in the insoluble fraction from the extraction this contained planetary helium and argon, i.e., the 3He/36Ar ratio was... 

It should be emphasized that mankind has come and still comes into contact with fullerene in everyday life. Pristine fullerene C60 itself can be found in our environment, e.g., in the soot produced by free burning of hydrocarbons like benzene and cyclohexane, as well as in charcoal, though in very small amounts (Shibuya et al., 1999) and in the kitchen (in natural gas combustion streams) (Bang et al., 2004 Murr and Soto, 2005). The impact of these natural sources is rather negligible though with the growth of production of fullerenes it could lead to much more serious environment pollution and be (or could not ) of a hazard to some extent. 

A new class of conjugated hydrocarbons is that of the fullerenes [11], which represent an allotropic modification of graphite. Their electrochemistry has been studied in great detail during the last decade [126]. The basic entity within this series is the Ceo molecule (23). Because of its high electron affinity, it can be reduced up to its hexaanion (Fig. 4) [14,127]. Solid-state measurements indicate that the radical anion of Ceo reversibly dimerizes. NMR measurements confirm a u-bond formation between two radical anion moieties [128,129]. 

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