Organocatalysis for new chiral fullerene-based materials

Abstract

The cycloaddition reaction of 3-alkynoates to fullerenes has been studied under different experimental conditions and phosphines in the presence of a base which is responsible for the previous isomerization to the corresponding allenoate. The versatility of this reaction allows chiral fullerenes to be obtained at will, thus opening up a new avenue in the use of enantiomerically pure carbon nanostructures in materials science.