New high-yielding synthetic routes to the small-molecule endofullerenes H2O@C60, D2O@C60 and H2@C60 are described. The use of high temperatures and pressures for the endohedral molecule incorporation are avoided. A new partial closure step using PPh3, and final suturing using a novel Diels-Alder/retro-Diels-Alder sequence are amongst the advances reported.

The amidation reaction between C60 with an activated ester group (1) and acetylated Glc (AcGlc) with an amino group (2) was performed to yield the target AcGlc-pendant C60 compound (3). The water soluble deacetylated compound, Glc-pendant C60 compound (4), exhibited high photocytotoxicity against HeLa cells due to the more efficient singlet oxygen generation as compared with that of Glc-pendant...

The photocycloaddition of vinylcyclopropanes to C60 yields stereospecifically a five-membered [60]fullerene adduct. These results suggest a biradical intermediate of the [2 + 2] photocycloaddition between dienes or arylalkenes and C60. An electron transfer between the triplet excited state of C60 and the unsaturated substrates precedes the formation of the intermediate.

A purification procedure for C60 from the fullerene extract has been developed using the differential complexation of C60 and C70 with AlCl3 (or its conjugate acid) in CS2 solution. In addition to pure C60 (>99.8%), the procedure also provides C70-enriched fullerene mixture.

Unmodified [60]fullerenes (C60) were solubilised with high stability using various type of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) based block copolymer micelles. Block copolymer micelle-incorporated C60 fullerenes were studied in cultures for biological activities using human cervical cancer HeLa cells. As a result, the cationic block copolymer micelles delivered C60 into the cells depending on their surf...

Fullerenes have been recently detected in various circumstellar and interstellar environments, raising the question of their formation pathway. It has been proposed that they can form at the low densities found in the interstellar medium by the photo-chemical processing of large polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Following our previous work on the evolution of PAHs in the NGC 7023 reflect...

Codeposition of C60 and the three-dimensional molecular hydrocarbon 1,3,5,7-tetraphenyladamantane (TPA) on Au(111) leads to the spontaneous formation of molecular nanostructures in which each fullerene is locked into a specific orientation by three surrounding TPA. Scanning tunneling spectroscopy shows that the electronic coupling of C60 with the surface is significantly reduced in these nanost...

The C60 fullerenes are fascinating objects and even many years after their discovery the photo-physics of C60 is still full of surprises. With their well defined, highly symmetric structure the fullerenes are challenging model systems and examples of an interface between atoms or small molecules and the solid state. The 60 delocalized π electrons in the C60 fullerene give rise to interesting bu...

We synthesized the novel nanocomposite consisting of alternately stacked single graphene sheets and a C60 monolayer by using the graphite intercalation technique in which alkylamine molecules help intercalate large C60 molecules into the graphite. It is found that the intercalated C60 molecules can rotate in between single graphene sheets by using 13C NMR measurements. The grease with the nanoc...

The effect of C60 molecular rotation on the nanotribological properties of C60 single crystal surfaces has been studied by atomic/frictional force microscopy. The orientational order-disorder phase transition, in which the high temperature C60 free rotation is reduced to a low temperature hindered rotation, is shown to give rise to an abrupt change in friction and adhesion. This change in frict...