Release of the Water Molecule Encapsulated Inside an Open-Cage Fullerene through Hydrogen Bonding Mediated by
Liang Xu1, Hongjiang Ren2, Sisi Liang1
1Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Key Laboratory of Bioorganic Chemistry and Molecular Engineering of the Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871 (P. R. China).
Abstract:
A reversible wetting/dewetting procedure is reported for an open-cage fullerene with an 18-membered orifice. In a homogeneous mixture of H2O/EtOH/CHCl3, water was encapsulated into the cavity of the open-cage compound quantitatively at 80 °C. Addition of aqueous hydrogen fluoride into the water-encapsulated complex removed the encapsulated water completely at room temperature. H-bonding between the trapped water and fluoride is shown to play a key role for the water release process.
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