Sponge-like molecular cage for purification of fullerenes
Garcia Simon, Cristina (Universitat de Girona. Departament de Química)
Garcia-Borràs, Marc (Universitat de Girona. Departament de Química)
Gómez, Laura (Universitat de Girona. Departament de Química)
Parella Coll, Teodor (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Química)
Osuna, Sílvia (Universitat de Girona. Departament de Química)
Juanhuix, Judith (ALBA Laboratori de Llum de Sincrotró)
Imaz, Inhar (Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia)
Maspoch Comamala, Daniel (Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia)
Costas, Miquel (Universitat de Girona. Departament de Química)
Ribas, Xavi (Universitat de Girona. Departament de Química)

Date:	2014
Abstract:	Since fullerenes are available in macroscopic quantities from fullerene soot, large efforts have been geared toward designing efficient strategies to obtain highly pure fullerenes, which can be subsequently applied in multiple research fields. Here we present a supramolecular nanocage synthesized by metal-directed self-assembly, which encapsulates fullerenes of different sizes. Direct experimental evidence is provided for the 1:1 encapsulation of C 60, C 70, C 76, C 78 and C 84, and solid state structures for the host-guest adducts with C 60 and C 70 have been obtained using X-ray synchrotron radiation. Furthermore, we design a washing-based strategy to exclusively extract pure C 60 from a solid sample of cage charged with a mixture of fullerenes. These results showcase an attractive methodology to selectively extract C 60 from fullerene mixtures, providing a platform to design tuned cages for selective extraction of higher fullerenes. The solid-phase fullerene encapsulation and liberation represent a twist in host-guest chemistry for molecular nanocage structures.
Grants:	European Commission 630978 European Commission 277801 European Commission 239910 Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte AP2010-2517 Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación CTQ2012-37420-C02-01/BQU Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación CTQ2012-32436 Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación CTQ2011-23156/BQU Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación CTQ2011-25086/BQU Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación CSD2010-00065 Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación INP-2011-0059-PCT-420000-ACT1 Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación MAT2012-30994 Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación JCI-2012-14438 Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2009/SGR-637
Rights:	Aquest material està protegit per drets d'autor i/o drets afins. Podeu utilitzar aquest material en funció del que permet la legislació de drets d'autor i drets afins d'aplicació al vostre cas. Per a d'altres usos heu d'obtenir permís del(s) titular(s) de drets.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió acceptada per publicar
Subject:	Carbon nanotubes and fullerenes ; Design, synthesis and processing ; Self-assembly
Published in:	Nature communications, Vol. 5 (Nov. 2014) , art. 5557, ISSN 2041-1723

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms6557

Postprint 24 p, 891.6 KB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2)
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > The ALBA Synchrotron
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles