Syntheses of functionalized fullerene materials leading to molecular recognition

ORGN 427

Zhiguo Zhou, David I. Schuster, and Stephen R. Wilson. Department of Chemistry, New York University, 100 Washington Square East, New York, NY 10003
The generation of functionalized fullerene materials with multiple non-covalent binding sites is of importance since they are three-dimensional nanoscale building blocks for the assembly of new materials. The assembly of such nanoscale architectures is crucial for the molecular recognition in supramolecular chemistry. We are interested in designing and preparing such functionalized fullerene materials based on our regioselective synthetic approach to make fullerene multiple adducts. Several macrocyclic polyether fullerene bis- and tris-adducts with specific three-dimensional structures were synthesized. Preliminary results of their molecular recognition properties with biologically relevant species, such as metal cations, were studied. In addition, the synthesis and property of related chiral functionalized fullerene compounds will be discussed.