Chemistry at the Nanoscale: Synthesis of an N@C60–N@C60 Endohedral Fullerene Dimer

B. J. Farrington1, Dr. M. Jevric2, Dr. G. A. Rance2, Dr. A. Ardavan3, Prof. A. N. Khlobystov2, Prof. G. A. D. Briggs1, Dr. K. Porfyrakis1,*

email*:kyriakos.porfyrakis@materials.ox.ac.uk.

1 Department of Materials, Oxford University, Oxford OX1 3PH, United Kingdom.

2 School of Chemistry, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, United Kingdom.

3 CAESR, The Clarendon Laboratory, Department of Physics Oxford University, Oxford OX1 3PU United Kingdom.

Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Volume 51, Issue 15, pages 3587–3590, April 10, 2012.

Abstract

Rattling the cage: The rapid one-pot double 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction of the rare endohedral fullerene N@C60 to an oligo(p-phenylene polyethylene) bis(aldehyde) using a novel amino acid derivative as an anchoring group is reported. The method provides the first example of a chemically linked, two-spin-center N@C60–N@C60 molecule (see picture). Assessment of this platform as an element of a quantum computing register is attractive.