Coordination chemistry of buckybowls: from corannulene to a hemifullerene

This work highlights the progress made in coordination chemistry of transition-metal centers to open geodesic polyaromatic hydrocarbons that map onto the surface of C-60, the family of compounds known as buckybowls or 'fullerene fragments'. In particular, an overview of our recent gas-phase coordination studies of several bowl-shaped polyarenes toward the dinuclear metal complex, [Rh-2(O2CCF3)(4)], is given. Selected buckybowls include corannulene (C20H10) and two of its derivatives, namely dibenzo[a, g] corannulene (C28H14) and 1,3,5,7,9-penta-tert-butylcorannulene (C40H50), as well as a hemifullerene (C30H12). This study has resulted in the first X-ray structural characterization of buckybowl coordination complexes and has revealed eta(2)-rim coordination preferences of open geodesic polyarenes in rhodium(II) binding reactions.