Competitive retro-cycloaddition reaction in fullerene dimers connected through pyrrolidinopyrazolino rings.

Competitive retro-cycloaddition in [60]- and [70]fullerene homodimers (1a,1c) as well as [60]/[70]heterodimer (1b), linked through 2-pyrazolinopyrrolidino bridges, has been studied by means of HPLC, mass spectrometry, and theoretical calculations at the density functional theory (DFT) level by using the two-layered ONIOM approach. The results of these investigations indicate that the retro-cycloaddition reaction of pyrrolidinofullerenes is favored compared to the retro-cycloaddition reaction of 2-pyrazolinofullerenes in compounds 1a-c. Evidence of the occurrence of this process have been observed both by HPLC and MS-MALDI, these findings being in good agreement with those predicted by theoretical calculations.