Stereoelectronically-induced allosteric binding: shape complementarity promotes positive cooperativity in fullerene/buckybowl complexes

Abstract

A novel 2 : 1 host–guest complex forms between 8-tert-butyl-6b²-azapenta-benzo[bc,ef,hi,kl,no]corannulene (1) and C₆₀ with positive cooperativity (α = 2.56) and high affinity (K₁ × K₂ = 2.8 × 10⁶ M⁻²) at 25 °C. The C₆₀ undergoes increasing shape complementarity toward 1 throughout the binding process.