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Preparation of a Corannulene-functionalized Hexahelicene by Copper(I)-catalyzed Alkyne-azide Cycloaddition of Nonplanar Polyaromatic Units
Published on: September 18, 2016
Dimetalloendofullerene U(2)@C(60) has a U-U multiple bond consisting of sixfold one-electron-two-center bonds
1State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surface and Center for Theoretical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China.
Abstract:
Endohedral metallofullerenes (EMFs) have been extensively studied since their discovery in 1985. Metal-metal bonds, nevertheless, have never been explicitly observed in EMFs synthesized so far. In this contribution, we show by means of all-electron relativistic density functional computations that the dimetalloendofullerene, U(2)@C(60), has an unprecedented U-U multiple bond consisting solely of sixfold ferromagnetically coupled one-electron-two-center bonds with the electronic configuration (5fpi(u))(2)(5fsigma(g))(1)(5fdelta(g))(2)(5fphi(u))(1), which are dominated by the uranium 5f atomic orbitals. This bonding scheme is completely distinct from the metal-metal bonds discovered thus far in the d- and f-block polynuclear metal complexes. This finding initiates a connection of the metal-metal multiple bonding chemistry and the fullerene chemistry.
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