Synthesis, Structure, and ¹⁹F NMR Spectra of 1,3,7,10,14,17,23,28,31,40-C₆₀(CF₃)₁₀

A significant improvement in the selectivity of fullerene trifluoromethylation reactions was achieved. Reaction of trifluoroiodomethane with [60]fullerene at 460 degrees C and [70]fullerene at 470 degrees C in a flow reactor led to isolation of cold-zone-condensed mixtures of C60(CF3)n and C70(CF3)n compounds with narrow composition ranges: 6 < or = n < or = 12 for C(60)(CF3)n and 8 < or = n < or = 14 for C70(CF3)n. The predominant products in the C(60) reaction, an estimated 40+ mol % of the cold-zone condensate, were three isomers of C60(CF3)10. Two of these were purified by two-stage HPLC to 80+% isomeric purity. The third isomer was purified by three-stage HPLC to 95% isomeric purity. Thirteen milligrams of this orange-brown compound was isolated (5% overall yield based on C60, and its C1-symmetric structure was determined to be 1,3,7,10,14,17,23,28,31,40-C60(CF3)10 by X-ray crystallography. The CF3 groups are either meta or para to one another on a p-m-p-p-p-m-p-m-p ribbon of edge-sharing C6(CF3)2 hexagons (each pair of adjacent hexagons shares a common CF3 group). The selectivity of the C70 reaction was even higher. The predominant product was a single C70(CF3)10 isomer representing >40 mol % of the cold-zone condensate. Single-stage HPLC led to the isolation of 12 mg of this brown compound in 95% isomeric purity (27% overall yield based on converted C70. The new compounds were characterized by EI or S(8)-MALDI mass spectrometry and 2D-COSY 19F NMR spectroscopy. The NMR data demonstrate that through-space coupling via direct overlap of fluorine orbitals is the predominant contribution to J(FF) values in these and most other fullerene(CF3)n compounds.