Novel facile routes for synthesis and isolation of fluorofullerenes C60F18 and C60F20 based on commercially available fluorinating reagents

We have investigated fluorination of [60]fullerene by binary and some tertiary mixtures of readily available Mn(III) and Co(III) fluorides with alkali metal fluorides and MnF2. Facile synthetic routes to fluorofullerenes C60F18 and C60F20 were developed with reaction yields up to 25 and 4%, respectively. Successful separation of fluorofullerenes, bulk isolation of C60F18 as well as some other fluorinated species have been achieved for the first time using column chromatography on silica.