Design of extended ?-systems utilizing bowl-shaped polyarenes (buckybowls) as functional building units has received increased attention in recent years. Varying the length and nature of the linkage between the curved fragments is used to alter their electronic coupling and to give new carbon-rich compounds with novel functions. Thus, employing two small corannulene bowls as pincers separated by tetrabenzocyclooctatetraene tether, the first efficient molecular receptors for fullerenes have been synthesized in Sygula group. The resulting buckycatcher was shown to exhibit a remarkable affinity towards fullerenes and other inclusion species, making its isolation in the neat form challenging. Herein, we report the first X-ray crystallographic study of the unsolvated buckycatcher that reveals a unique and tight solid state packing based on ?-? interactions of corannulene pincers. We have also accomplished the first buckycatcher reduction study which resulted in the isolation and structural characterization of the dianion in the form of the rubidium salt.

Buckycatcher with nothing to catch and its first reduction study

247th National Meeting (2014)

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