Design and characterization of two strong fullerene receptors based on ball–socket interactions

Herein, we studied the interaction between the fullerenes C60 and C70 with pentaindenocorannulene (P), chrysaorole (C) and two new buckycatchers. The P and C bowls interact with the fullerenes with an interaction-energy (IE) that is twice the value determined for corannulene. The new receptors designed include a cyclooctatetraene core which has two P or C pincers attached. Notwithstanding the fact that the proposed hosts prefer stacked conformations at equilibrium, the IE determined are extremely large and close to the ones computed for the dimeric metalloporphyrins. It is our hope that this work stimulates the synthesis of these receptors.