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Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
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    Fulleretic well-defined scaffolds: Donor–fullerene alignment through metal coordination and its effect on photophysics
    (Hoboken, NJ : Wiley, 2016) Williams, Derek E.; Dolgopolova, Ekaterina A.; Godfrey, Danielle C.; Ermolaeva, Evgeniya D.; Pellechia, Perry J.; Greytak, Andrew B.; Smith, Mark D.; Avdoshenko, Stanislav M.; Popov, Alexey A.; Shustova, Natalia B.
    Herein, we report the first example of a crystalline metal–donor–fullerene framework, in which control of the donor–fullerene mutual orientation was achieved through chemical bond formation, in particular, by metal coordination. The 13C cross‐polarization magic‐angle spinning NMR spectroscopy, X‐ray diffraction, and time‐resolved fluorescence spectroscopy were performed for comprehensive structural analysis and energy‐transfer (ET) studies of the fulleretic donor–acceptor scaffold. Furthermore, in combination with photoluminescence measurements, the theoretical calculations of the spectral overlap function, Förster radius, excitation energies, and band structure were employed to elucidate the photophysical and ET processes in the prepared fulleretic material. We envision that the well‐defined fulleretic donor–acceptor materials could contribute not only to the basic science of fullerene chemistry but would also be used towards effective development of organic photovoltaics and molecular electronics.
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    Mononuclear clusterfullerene single‐molecule magnet containing strained fused‐pentagons stabilized by a nearly linear metal cyanide cluster
    (Hoboken, NJ : Wiley, 2017) Liu, Fupin; Wang, Song; Gao, Cong-Li; Deng, Qingming; Zhu, Xianjun; Kostanyan, Aram; Westerstrçm, Rasmus; Jin, Fei; Xie, Su‐Yuan; Popov, Alexey A.; Greber, Thomas; Yang, Shangfeng
    Fused‐pentagons results in an increase of local steric strain according to the isolated pentagon rule (IPR), and for all reported non‐IPR clusterfullerenes multiple (two or three) metals are required to stabilize the strained fused‐pentagons, making it difficult to access the single‐atom properties. Herein, we report the syntheses and isolations of novel non‐IPR mononuclear clusterfullerenes MNC@C76 (M=Tb, Y), in which one pair of strained fused‐pentagon is stabilized by a mononuclear cluster. The molecular structures of MNC@C76 (M=Tb, Y) were determined unambiguously by single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction, featuring a non‐IPR C2v(19138)‐C76 cage entrapping a nearly linear MNC cluster, which is remarkably different from the triangular MNC cluster within the reported analogous clusterfullerenes based on IPR‐obeying C82 cages. The TbNC@C76 molecule is found to be a field‐induced single‐molecule magnet (SMM).
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    Methane as a selectivity booster in the arc-discharge synthesis of endohedral fullerenes: Selective synthesis of the single-molecule magnet Dy2TiC@C80and Its Congener Dy2TiC2@C80
    (Hoboken, NJ : Wiley, 2015) Junghans, Katrin; Schlesier, Christin; Kostanyan, Aram; Samoylova, Nataliya A.; Deng, Qingming; Rosenkranz, Marco; Schiemenz, Sandra; Westerström, Rasmus; Greber, Thomas; Büchner, Bernd; Greber, Thomas; Popov, Alexey A.
    The use of methane as a reactive gas dramatically increases the selectivity of the arc‐discharge synthesis of M‐Ti‐carbide clusterfullerenes (M=Y, Nd, Gd, Dy, Er, Lu). Optimization of the process parameters allows the synthesis of Dy2TiC@C80‐I and its facile isolation in a single chromatographic step. A new type of cluster with an endohedral acetylide unit, M2TiC2@C80, is discovered along with the second isomer of M2TiC@C80. Dy2TiC@C80‐(I,II) and Dy2TiC2@C80‐I are shown to be single‐molecule magnets (SMM), but the presence of the second carbon atom in the cluster Dy2TiC2@C80 leads to substantially poorer SMM properties.
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    Sc3CH@C80: selective 13C enrichment of the central carbon atom
    (Cambridge : Royal Society of Chemistry, 2016) Junghans, Katrin; Rosenkranz, Marco; Popov, Alexey A.
    Sc3CH@C80 is synthesized and characterized by 1H, 13C, and 45Sc NMR. A large negative chemical shift of the proton, -11.73 ppm in the Ih and -8.79 ppm in the D5h C80 cage isomers, is found. 13C satellites in the 1H NMR spectrum enabled indirect determination of the 13C chemical shift for the central carbon at 173 ± 1 ppm. Intensity of the satellites allowed determination of the 13C content for the central carbon atom. This unique possibility is applied to analyze the cluster/cage 13C distribution in mechanistic studies employing either 13CH4 or 13C powder to enrich Sc3CH@C80 with 13C.
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    A crystalline anionic complex of scandium nitride endometallofullerene: Experimental observation of single-bonded (Sc3N@Ih-C80−)2 dimers
    (Cambridge : Royal Society of Chemistry, 2016) Konarev, Dmitri V.; Zorina, Leokadiya V.; Khasanov, Salavat S.; Popov, Alexey A.; Otsuka, Akihiro; Yamochi, Hideki; Saito, Gunzi; Lyubovskaya, Rimma N.
    Reduction of scandium nitride clusterfullerene, Sc3N@Ih-C80, by sodium fluorenone ketyl in the presence of cryptand[2,2,2] allows the crystallization of the {cryptand[2,2,2](Na+)}2(Sc3N@Ih-C80−)2·2.5C6H4Cl2 (1) salt. The Sc3N@Ih-C80˙− radical anions are dimerized to form single-bonded (Sc3N@Ih-C80−)2 dimers.
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    A faux hawk fullerene with PCBM-like properties
    (Cambridge : Royal Society of Chemistry, 2014) San, Long K.; Bukovsky, Eric V.; Larson, Bryon W.; Whitaker, James B.; Deng, S.H.M.; Kopidakis, Nikos; Rumbles, Garry; Popov, Alexey A.; Chen, Yu-Sheng; Wang, Xue-Bin; Boltalina, Olga V.; Strauss, Steven H.
    Reaction of C60, C6F5CF2I, and SnH(n-Bu)3 produced, among other unidentified fullerene derivatives, the two new compounds 1,9-C60(CF2C6F5)H (1) and 1,9-C60(cyclo-CF2(2-C6F4)) (2). The highest isolated yield of 1 was 35% based on C60. Depending on the reaction conditions, the relative amounts of 1 and 2 generated in situ were as high as 85% and 71%, respectively, based on HPLC peak integration and summing over all fullerene species present other than unreacted C60. Compound 1 is thermally stable in 1,2-dichlorobenzene (oDCB) at 160 °C but was rapidly converted to 2 upon addition of Sn2(n-Bu)6 at this temperature. In contrast, complete conversion of 1 to 2 occurred within minutes, or hours, at 25 °C in 90/10 (v/v) PhCN/C6D6 by addition of stoichiometric, or sub-stoichiometric, amounts of proton sponge (PS) or cobaltocene (CoCp2). DFT calculations indicate that when 1 is deprotonated, the anion C60(CF2C6F5)− can undergo facile intramolecular SNAr annulation to form 2 with concomitant loss of F−. To our knowledge this is the first observation of a fullerene-cage carbanion acting as an SNAr nucleophile towards an aromatic C–F bond. The gas-phase electron affinity (EA) of 2 was determined to be 2.805(10) eV by low-temperature PES, higher by 0.12(1) eV than the EA of C60 and higher by 0.18(1) eV than the EA of phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM). In contrast, the relative E1/2(0/−) values of 2 and C60, −0.01(1) and 0.00(1) V, respectively, are virtually the same (on this scale, and under the same conditions, the E1/2(0/−) of PCBM is −0.09 V). Time-resolved microwave conductivity charge-carrier yield × mobility values for organic photovoltaic active-layer-type blends of 2 and poly-3-hexylthiophene (P3HT) were comparable to those for equimolar blends of PCBM and P3HT. The structure of solvent-free crystals of 2 was determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The number of nearest-neighbor fullerene–fullerene interactions with centroid⋯centroid (⊙⋯⊙) distances of ≤10.34 Å is significantly greater, and the average ⊙⋯⊙ distance is shorter, for 2 (10 nearest neighbors; ave. ⊙⋯⊙ distance = 10.09 Å) than for solvent-free crystals of PCBM (7 nearest neighbors; ave. ⊙⋯⊙ distance = 10.17 Å). Finally, the thermal stability of 2 was found to be far greater than that of PCBM.
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    Self-assembly of endohedral metallofullerenes: A decisive role of cooling gas and metal-carbon bonding
    (Cambridge : Royal Society of Chemistry, 2016) Deng, Qingming; Heine, Thomas; Irle, Stephan; Popov, Alexey A.
    The endohedral metallofullerene (EMF) self-assembly process in Sc/carbon vapor in the presence and absence of an inert cooling gas (helium) is systematically investigated using quantum chemical molecular dynamics simulations. It is revealed that the presence of He atoms accelerates the formation of pentagons and hexagons and reduces the size of the self-assembled carbon cages in comparison with analogous He-free simulations. As a result, the Sc/C/He system simulations produce a larger number of successful trajectories (i.e. leading to Sc-EMFs) with more realistic cage-size distribution than simulations of the Sc/C system. The main Sc encapsulation mechanism involves nucleation of several hexagons and pentagons with Sc atoms already at the early stages of carbon vapor condensation. In such proto-cages, both Sc–C σ-bonds and coordination bonds between Sc atoms and the π-system of the carbon network are present. Sc atoms are thus rather labile and can move along the carbon network, but the overall bonding is sufficiently strong to prevent dissociation even at temperatures around 2000 kelvin. Further growth of the fullerene cage results in the encapsulation of one or two Sc atoms within the fullerene. In agreement with experimental studies, an extension of the simulations to Fe and Ti as the metal component showed that Fe-EMFs are not formed at all, whereas Ti is prone to form Ti-EMFs with small cage sizes, including Ti@C28-Td and Ti@C30-C2v(3).
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    Synthesis and isolation of the titanium–scandium endohedral fullerenes—Sc2TiC@Ih‐C80, Sc2TiC@D5h‐C80 and Sc2TiC2@Ih‐C80: Metal size tuning of the TiIV/TiIII redox potentials
    (Hoboken, NJ : Wiley, 2016) Junghans, Katrin; Ghiassi, Kamran B.; Samoylova, Nataliya A.; Deng, Qingming; Rosenkranz, Marco; Olmstead, Marylin M.; Balch, Alan L.; Popov, Alexey A.
    The formation of endohedral metallofullerenes (EMFs) in an electric arc is reported for the mixed‐metal Sc–Ti system utilizing methane as a reactive gas. Comparison of these results with those from the Sc/CH4 and Ti/CH4 systems as well as syntheses without methane revealed a strong mutual influence of all key components on the product distribution. Whereas a methane atmosphere alone suppresses the formation of empty cage fullerenes, the Ti/CH4 system forms mainly empty cage fullerenes. In contrast, the main fullerene products in the Sc/CH4 system are Sc4C2@C80 (the most abundant EMF from this synthesis), Sc3C2@C80, isomers of Sc2C2@C82, and the family Sc2C2 n (2 n=74, 76, 82, 86, 90, etc.), as well as Sc3CH@C80. The Sc–Ti/CH4 system produces the mixed‐metal Sc2TiC@C2 n (2 n=68, 78, 80) and Sc2TiC2@C2 n (2 n=80) clusterfullerene families. The molecular structures of the new, transition‐metal‐containing endohedral fullerenes, Sc2TiC@Ih‐C80, Sc2TiC@D5h‐C80, and Sc2TiC2@Ih‐C80, were characterized by NMR spectroscopy. The structure of Sc2TiC@Ih‐C80 was also determined by single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction, which demonstrated the presence of a short Ti=C double bond. Both Sc2TiC‐ and Sc2TiC2‐containing clusterfullerenes have Ti‐localized LUMOs. Encapsulation of the redox‐active Ti ion inside the fullerene cage enables analysis of the cluster–cage strain in the endohedral fullerenes through electrochemical measurements.