title: Synthesis and identification of heterocyclic derivatives of fullerene C60: unexpected reaction of anionic C60 with benzonitrile.
abstract: During the reaction of reduced C60 with benzyl bromide in benzonitrile, a novel cis-1 C60 adduct, 1,4-dibenzyl-2,3-cyclic phenylimidate C60 (1), was obtained rather than the expected product of 1,4-dibenzyl C60. The structure of compound 1 was analyzed by X-ray single-crystal diffraction, identifying the presence of a five-membered heterocycle at a [5,6] bond of C60. One of the heteroatoms is assigned as a nitrogen atom; however, the identity of the other heteroatom cannot be determined unambiguously by crystallography due to similarity between the nitrogen and oxygen atoms. A related compound (2) bearing the same heterocycle was obtained from anionic C60 benzonitrile solution when no benzyl bromide was added. The structure of compound 2 was determined by NMR, MALDI FT-ICR MS, and UV-vis. Results from MALDI FT-ICR MS for compound 2 show unambiguously that the second heteroatom is an oxygen atom, which is probably from traces of water in the solvent. Control experiments of the reactivity of the neutral, monoanionic, dianionic, and trianionic C60 have shown that the reactive species for the unexpected reaction is the C60 trianion.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Electroanalytical Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, Jilin 130022, China.
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Fang-fang
authors.initials: FF
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Ling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ni
authors.forename: Wei-wei
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Xiang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Gao