Production and EPR characterization of exohedrally perfluoroalkylated paramagnetic lanthanum metallofullerenes: (La@C82)–(C8F17)2

A strategy to chemically derivatize the outer sphere of endohedral metallofullerenes by using a fluorous synthesis-partitioning approach has been developed. The newly synthesized materials were found to be paramagnetic species and were characterized by electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy (EPR), laser desorption time-of-flight spectrometry (LD-TOF) and electronic absorption spectroscopy (UV–VIS–NIR). The fluorous-phase partitioning method (or liquid–liquid extraction), successfully applied for the first time in fullerene chemistry, aided by multi-stage recycling high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) resulted in their isolation in isomer-free form. The present study opens the way to organic transformations of fullerene-based materials as a powerful separation technique.