1,3-Dipolar reactions involving corannulene: how does its rim and spoke addition vary?

[reaction: see text] Corannulene undergoes 1,3-dipolar reactions with the dipoles, diazomethane, nitrile oxide, and nitrone through its rim and spoke pi bonds; the rim addition yields "one possible" adduct whereas two "regioselective" adducts are formed by spoke addition. Mechanisms of these reactions have been investigated at the B3LYP/6-31G(d) level. Computations show that both rim and spoke additions prefer concerted pathways that lie 2-5 kcal/mol lower in energy than stepwise paths. Stepwise additions can take place in two ways and the activation energies of these two modes differ by 1-2 kcal/mol. A close inspection of the energy profiles reveals that rim addition is more favorable kinetically and thermodynamically than spoke addition in view of lower activation energy and higher exothermicity observed for rim addition. The rim bond of corannulene is more flexible for distortion and also has a stronger double bond (i.e. pi-character) than the spoke bond and this facilitates rim addition over spoke addition. Deformation energy analysis also confirms the above through higher deformation in corannulene from the spoke addition when compared to rim addition. In the spoke addition, regio1 reaction is kinetically more favored than regio2 reaction. Attempts to react corannulene in an endohedral fashion have led to the exohedral adduct. Computed activation energies suggest that corannulene acts as a deactivated dipolarophile compared to ethylene. Even more striking is the observation that rim and spoke double bonds in corannulene are part of the local aromatic system but it shows remarkable reactivity compared to benzene despite the loss of aromaticity during the reaction. This is well indicated by computed NICS values. Inclusion of acetonitrile as solvent through the PCM model increases the reaction rate and exothermicity.