BOND RESONANCE ENERGIES AND KINETIC STABILITIES OF CHARGED FULLERENES

The bond resonance energy (BRE) represents the contribution of a given pi bond in a molecule to the topological resonance energy. Kinetic stabilities of fullerenes and their molecular ions were interpreted successfully in terms of the BREs. Fullerene cations have highly reactive pi bonds with large negative BREs. In contrast, few pi bonds in multiply charged fullerene anions have large negative BREs. Thus, fullerenes and their molecular ions with highly antiaromatic pi bonds are predicted to be incapable of formation and survival during the synthetic process. Such a trend in kinetic stability is in agreement with experiment.