Synthesis of a distinct water dimer inside fullerene C70
The water dimer is an ideal chemical species with which to study hydrogen bonds. Owing to the equilibrium between the monomer and oligomer structure, however, selective generation and separation of a genuine water dimer has not yet been achieved. Here, we report a synthetic strategy that leads to th...
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Published in | Nature chemistry Vol. 8; no. 5; pp. 435 - 441 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
London
Nature Publishing Group UK
01.05.2016
Nature Publishing Group |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | The water dimer is an ideal chemical species with which to study hydrogen bonds. Owing to the equilibrium between the monomer and oligomer structure, however, selective generation and separation of a genuine water dimer has not yet been achieved. Here, we report a synthetic strategy that leads to the successful encapsulation of one or two water molecules inside fullerene C
70
. These endohedral C
70
compounds offer the opportunity to study the intrinsic properties of a single water molecule without any hydrogen bonding, as well as an isolated water dimer with a single hydrogen bond between the two molecules. The unambiguously determined off-centre position of water in
(H
2
O)
2
@C
70
by X-ray diffraction provides insights into the formation of
(H
2
O)
2
@C
70
. Subsequently, the
1
H NMR spectroscopic measurements for
(H
2
O)
2
@C
70
confirmed the formation of a single hydrogen bond rapidly interchanging between the encapsulated water dimer. Our theoretical calculations revealed a peculiar
cis
-linear conformation of the dimer resulting from confinement effects inside C
70
.
Endohedral C
70
fullerenes containing either one or two water molecules have now been prepared using a molecular-surgery approach. The structure of H
2
O@C
70
was determined by single-crystal X-ray analysis, revealing the encapsulated water molecule to be in an off-centre position. In (H
2
O)
2
@C
70
, the two water molecules form a discrete dimer held together with a single hydrogen bond. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 1755-4330 1755-4349 |
DOI: | 10.1038/nchem.2464 |