Templating Linear Alignment of Fullerene C60 Molecules Involving a Curved Macrocycle

Abstract

A nickel macrocycle bearing 15-crown-5 ether pendant moieties forms a 1:1 complex with fullerene C60, with the macrocycle templating the formation of linear arrays of the fullerenes, and the inter-fullerene contacts being associated with parallel six-membered rings, with the fullerene…fullerene centroid distances remarkably short at 9.757 Å. Three crystalline solids involving this macrocycle were isolated and studied by X-ray structure analysis and the complex reveals a self-inclusion mode of packing in its guest-free form, while acting as a host in its inclusion compounds with C60 and C60/toluene.