THE CHEMICAL NATURE OF BUCKMINSTERFULLERENE (C60) AND THE CHARACTERIZATION OF A PLATINUM DERIVATIVE

Little is known about the chemical nature of the recently isolated carbon clusters (C60, C70, C84, and so forth). One potential application of these materials is as highly dispersed supports for metal catalysts, and therefore the question of how metal atoms bind to C60 is of interest. Reaction of C60 with organometallic ruthenium and platinum reagents has shown that metals can be attached directly to the carbon framework. The native geometry of C60 is almost ideally constructed for dihaptobonding to a transition metal, and an x-ray diffraction analysis of the platinum complex [(C6H5)3P]2Pt(eta-2-C60).C4H8O revealed a structure similar to that known for [(C6H5)3P]2Pt(eta-2-ethylene). The reactivity of C60 is not like that of relatively electron-rich planar aromatic molecules such as benzene. The carbon-carbon double bonds of C60 react like those of very electron-deficient arenes and alkenes.