Abstract

Molecular nanocarbons that exclusively consist of sp2 carbon atoms have attracted great attention not only because of their aesthetically appealing structures and intriguing electronic properties but also due to their important roles in bottom-up approaches to precise synthesis of nanocarbons of unique topology.1 Herein, a new oxanorbornene-fused nanocage was synthesized by condensation of three C-shaped tetraamine building blocks and two units of cyclohexanehexone. The structure of this D3h-symmetric nanocage was unambiguously identified by X-ray crystallography, and reduction of it with SnCl2 followed by oxidation with o-chloranil led to observation of the corresponding fully conjugated nanocage by high resolution mass spectroscopy. The photoluminescence of this oxanorbornene-fused nanocage exhibits apparent positive solvatochromism as a result of having its HOMO and LUMO distributed on the pyrene and hexaazatrinaphthylene units, respectively.

Reference:

1. Narita, A.; Wang, X. Y.; Feng, X.; Müllen, K. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2015, 44, 6616−6643.