Deuterated Ethanol as a Probe for Measuring Equilibrium Isotope Effects for Hydroxyl Exchange.

Equilibrium deuterium isotope effects for exchange of hydroxyl deuterons and protons among tert-butanol, phenol, ethanethiol, diethylamine, and ethanol were measured by using NMR and also calculated theoretically. Deuterated ethanol could be used as a probe for measuring equilibrium isotope effects (EIE) for hydroxyl exchange; tert-butanol, phenol, ethanethiol, diethylamine, and pyrrole were used as five representive examples. A procedure called the "one-atom isotope effect" was used to save time in the calculations.

NMR temperature-jump method for measuring reaction rates: reaction of dimethylanthracene with H2@C60.

We show a simple variant on Eigen's familiar temperature-jump method to measure rate constants. The sample is prepared in a sealed NMR tube, which is heated and then abruptly cooled. The NMR spectrum is then taken repeatedly until equilibrium is reestablished at the new temperature. The sample can be used over and over again. We demonstrate the technique on the reversible addition of 9,10-dimethylantracene to C(60). The C(60) contains H(2), and this provides an NMR signal upfield from TMS, well away from the rest of the spectrum. We show that the equilibrium constant for H(2)@C(60) is the same as that for (3)He@C(60).

Methane in an open-cage [60]fullerene.

An endohedral methane complex of a fullerene derivative is first synthesized by insertion of a methane molecule through the opening of an open-cage C(60) derivative. The trapped methane is confirmed by NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. Both methane carbon and protons show remarkable upfield shifts in NMR, characteristic of a chemical species in a fullerene cage. CH(4) protons appear as one equivalent signal in the (1)H NMR spectrum, suggesting that even methane can rotate in a C(60) cage.

Putting atoms and molecules into chemically opened fullerenes.

We studied Ar, Kr, CO, and N(2) going into and out of a chemically opened fullerene, 1. We measured the equilibrium constant, K(eq), for the formation of X@1. K(eq) is particularly large for Ar, probably due to the large van der Waals attraction between the Ar atom and the fullerene cage. We measured rate constants and activation energies for the unimolecular reaction X@1-->X + 1 (X = Ar, CO, N(2)). The reactions show an unusually small pre-exponential factor, probably due to the loose binding of X inside the cage.

Putting ammonia into a chemically opened fullerene.

We put ammonia into an open-cage fullerene with a 20-membered ring ( 1) as the orifice and examined the properties of the complex using NMR and MALDI-TOF mass spectroscopy. The proton NMR shows a broad resonance corresponding to endohedral NH 3 at delta H = -12.3 ppm relative to TMS. This resonance was seen to narrow when a (14)N decoupling frequency was applied. MALDI spectroscopy confirmed the presence of both 1 ( m/ z = 1172) and 1 + NH 3 ( m/ z = 1189), and integrated intensities of MALDI peak trains and NMR resonances indicate an incorporation fraction of 35-50% under our experimental conditions. NMR observations showed a diminished incorporation fraction after 6 months of storage at -10 degrees C, which indicates that ammonia slowly escapes from the open-cage fullerene.

Vibration-rotation spectroscopy of molecules trapped inside C60.

A simple model is developed to treat the energy levels and spectroscopy of diatomic molecules inside C 60. The C 60 cage is treated as spherically symmetric, and the coupling to the C 60 vibrations is ignored. The remaining six degrees of freedom correspond to the vibrations and rotations of the diatomic molecule and the rattling vibration of the molecule inside the cage. By using conservation of angular momentum, we can remove two of these motions and simplify the calculations. The resulting energy levels are simple and can be labeled by a set of quantum numbers. The IR and Raman spectra look like those of gas-phase diatomic molecules at low temperatures. At higher temperatures, hot bands due to the low-frequency rattling mode appear, and the spectrum becomes congested, looking like a solution spectrum.

Azobenzene-linked porphyrin-fullerene dyads.

A new group of porphyrin-fullerene dyads with an azobenzene linker was synthesized, and the photochemical and photophysical properties of these materials were investigated using steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopic methods. The electrochemical properties of these compounds were also studied in detail. The synthesis involved oxidative heterocoupling of free base tris-aryl-p-aminophenyl porphyrins with a p-aminophenylacetal, followed by deprotection to give the aldehyde, and finally Prato 1,3-dipolar azomethineylide cycloaddition to C60. The corresponding Zn(II)-porphyrin (ZnP) dyads were made by treating the free base dyads with zinc acetate. The final dyads were characterized by their 1H NMR, mass, and UV-vis spectra. 3He NMR was used to determine if the products are a mixture of cis and trans stereoisomers, or a single isomer. The data are most consistent with the isolation of only a single configurational isomer, assigned to the trans (E) configuration. The ground-state UV-vis spectra are virtually a superimposition of the spectral features of the individual components, indicating there is no interaction of the fullerene (F) and porphyrin (H2P/ZnP) moieties in the ground state. This conclusion is supported by the electrochemical data. The steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence spectra indicate that the porphyrin fluorescence in the dyads is very strongly quenched at room temperature in the three solvents studied: toluene, tetrahydrofuran (THF), and benzonitrile (BzCN). The fluorescence lifetimes of the dyads in all solvents are sharply reduced compared to those of H2P and ZnP standards. In toluene, the lifetimes of the free base dyads are 600-790 ps compared to 10.1 ns for the standard, while in THF and BzCN the dyad lifetimes are less than 100 ps. For the ZnP dyads, the fluorescence lifetimes were 10-170 ps vs 2.1-2.2 ns for the ZnP references. The mechanism of the fluorescence quenching was established using time-resolved transient absorption spectroscopy. In toluene, the quenching process is singlet-singlet energy transfer (k approximately 10(11) s-1) to give C60 singlet excited states which decay with a lifetime of 1.2 ns to give very long-lived C60 triplet states. In THF and BzCN, quenching of porphyrin singlet states occurs at a similar rate, but now by electron transfer, to give charge-separated radical pair (CSRP) states, which show transient absorption spectra very similar to those reported for other H2P-C60 and ZnP-C60 dyad systems. The lifetimes of the CSRP states are in the range 145-435 ns in THF, much shorter than for related systems with amide, alkyne, silyl, and hydrogen-bonded linkers. Thus, both forward and back electron transfer is facilitated by the azobenzene linker. Nonetheless, the charge recombination is 3-4 orders of magnitude slower than charge separation, demonstrating that for these types of donor-acceptor systems back electron transfer is occurring in the Marcus inverted region.

Effect of xenon on fullerene reactions.

Solutions containing 3He@C60, 129Xe@C60, and varying amounts of 9,10-dimethylanthracene (DMA) were allowed to reach equilibrium, and the 3He and 129Xe NMR spectra were taken at the same temperature. Each spectrum showed peaks for the unreacted X@C60 and for the monoadduct. The ratios of the peak heights show that the included xenon atom substantially changes the equilibrium constant. This change is temperature dependent, meaning that the xenon atom changes both DeltaH and DeltaS for the reaction. DMA is more reactive with He@C60 at low temperatures and with Xe@C60 at higher temperatures. The difference in chemical shift between the monoadduct and the unreacted X@C60 is more than twice as large for Xe than for He and in the opposite direction. Calculations show that the electron density in Xe@C60 is higher than that in empty C60 on the outside of the cage.

3He NMR as a sensitive probe of fullerene reactivity: [2 + 2] photocycloaddition of 3-methyl-2-cyclohexenone to C70.

The [2 + 2] photoadditions of 3-methyl-2-cyclohexenone to C70 and 3He@C70 have been studied by a combination of HPLC chromatography and FAB-MS, as well as IR and 1H and 3He NMR spectroscopies. The total yield of the mixture of monoadducts was 55% (67% on the basis of the recovered C70). The use of 3He NMR was especially powerful in determining the regioselectivity of the photoaddition reaction of enone to C70. Results of the 3He NMR experiments conducted on the product mixture implicate the two [6,6] bonds closest to the poles of the fullerene (C1-C2 and C5-C6) in the photoaddition process. This reaction mode is analogous to that of most thermal addition reactions to C70. Separation and characterization of the product mixture shows that eight distinct monoadducts are formed in the photoaddition, namely, the four diastereomeric adducts to the C1-C2 and C5-C6 bonds of the C70 cage, each consisting of cis- and trans-fused isomers in a ratio of 2:3. The major mode of photoaddition, accounting for 65% of the product mixture, involves addition to the C1-C2 bond of the ovoid fullerene. Mechanistic implications of these findings are discussed.

Kinetic energy release of C70(+) and its endohedral cation N@C70(+): activation energy for N extrusion.

Unimolecular decomposition of C70(+) and its endohedral cation N@C70(+) were studied by high-resolution mass-analyzed ion kinetic energy (MIKE) spectrometry. Information on the energetics and dynamics of these reactions was extracted. C70(+) dissociates unimolecularly by loss of a C2 unit, whereas N@C70(+) expels the endohedral N atom. Kinetic energy release distributions (KERDs) in these reactions were measured. By use of finite heat bath theory (FHBT), the binding energy for C2 emission from C70(+) and the activation energy for N elimination from N@C70(+) were deduced from KERDs in the light of a recent finding that fragmentation of fullerene cations proceeds via a very loose transition state. The activation energy measured for N extrusion from N@C70(+) was found to be lower than that for C2 evaporation, higher than the value from its neutral molecule N@C70 obtained on the basis of thermal stability measurements, and coincident with the theoretical value. The results provide confirmation that the proposed extrusion mechanism in which the N atom escapes from the cage via formation of an aza-bridged intermediate is correct.

Transmutation of fullerenes.

Fullerenes were pyrolyzed by subliming them into a stream of flowing argon gas and then passing them through an oven heated to approximately 1000 degrees C. C(76), C(78), and C(84) all readily lost carbons to form smaller fullerenes. In the case of C(78), some isomerization was seen. Pyrolysis of (3)He@C(76) showed that all or most of the (3)He was lost during the decomposition. C(60) passes through the apparatus with no decomposition and no loss of helium.

Helium entry and escape through a chemically opened window in a fullerene.

(3)He has been inserted into the cavity of an open-cage fullerene derivative close to room temperature, reaching an incorporation fraction of 0.1%. The rate of escape of (3)He from this fullerene was monitored by (3)He NMR to yield the activation barrier and to compare the size of the orifice to those of other open-cage fullerenes. The equilibrium constant was also measured.

Unimolecular dissociations of C70+ and its noble gas endohedral cations Ne@C70+ and Ar@C70+: cage-binding energies for C2 loss.

The energetics and dynamics of unimolecular decompositions of C70+ and its noble gas endohedral cations, Ne@C70+ and Ar@C70+, have been studied using tandem mass spectrometry techniques. The high-resolution mass-analyzed ion kinetic energy (HR-MIKE) spectra for the unimolecular reactions of C70+, Ne@CC70+, and Ar@C70+ were recorded by scanning the electrostatic analyzer and using single-ion counting that was achieved by combination of an electron multiplier, amplifier/discriminator, and multichannel analyzer. These cations dissociate unimolecularly via loss of a C2 unit, and no endohedral atom is observed as fragment. The activation energies for C2 evaporation from Ne@C70+ and Ar@C70+ are lower than those for elimination of the endohedral noble gas atoms. The kinetic energy release distributions (KERDs) for the C2 evaporation have been measured and, by use of the finite heat bath theory (FHBT), the binding energies for the C2 emission have been deduced from the KERDs. The C2 evaporation energies increase in the order DeltaEvap(C70+) < DeltaEvap(Ne@C70+) < DeltaEvap(Ar@C70+), but no big difference in the cage binding was observed for C70+, Ne@C70+, and Ar@C70+, indicating incorporations of the Ne and Ar atoms into C70 contribute a little to the stability of C70 toward C2 loss, which is in good agreement with theoretical calculations but contrasts with the findings in their C60 analogues and in metallofullerenes that the decay energies of the filled fullerenes are much higher than those of the corresponding empty cages.

Direct detection and quantitation of He@C60 by ultrahigh-resolution Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry.

In this paper, we report negative ion microelectrospray Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) mass spectrometry of C60 samples containing approximately 1% 3He@C60 or 4He@C60. Resolving He@C60- and 4He@C60- from C60 containing 3 or 4 13C instead of 12C atoms is technically challenging, because the target species are present in low relative abundance and are very close in mass. Nevertheless, we achieve baseline resolution of 3He@C60- from 13C3(12C57-) and 4He@C60- from 13C4(12C56-) in single-scan mass spectra obtained in broadband mode without preisolation of the ions of interest. The results constitute the first direct mass spectrometric observation of endohedral helium in a fullerene sample at this (low) level of incorporation. The results also demonstrate the feasibility of determining the extent of He incorporation from the FT-ICR mass spectral peak heights. The present measurements are in agreement with those obtained by the pyrolysis method [1-3]. Although limited in sensitivity, the mass spectral method is faster and easier than pyrolysis.

Two helium atoms inside fullerenes: probing the internal magnetic field in C60(6-) and C70(6-).

A 3He NMR resonance of C606- containing He is assigned to He2@C606-, thus showing that C60 can also accommodate two helium atoms. The ratio of the di-helium compound relative to the mono- is 1:200, 10 times lower than the equivalent counterpart of C70. The 3He NMR chemical shift of He2@C606- is 0.093 ppm downfield from the already known resonance of He@C606-. In the reduced endohedral mono- and di-helium C70, the 3He NMR chemical shift of He2@C706- is 0.154 ppm upfield from the peak of He@C706-.

Crystallographic characterization of Kr@C60 in (0.09Kr@C60/0.91C60). (NiII(OEP)).2C6H6.

A sample of C60 containing ca. 9% Kr@C60 has been used to form crystalline (0.09Kr@C60/0.91C60).(NiII(OEP)).2C6H6 whose X-ray crystal structure reveals that the Kr atom is centered within the carbon cage and does not produce a detectable change in the size of the fullerene.

129Xe NMR spectrum of xenon inside C(60).

Xenon was inserted into C(60) by heating C(60) in 3000 atm of xenon gas at 650 degrees C. The Xe@C(60) was separated from the empty C(60) by using HPLC. The (13)C resonance for Xe@C(60) is shifted downfield by 0.95 ppm (192 Hz). (129)Xe NMR showed a line 179.2 ppm downfield from xenon gas.