Computational synthesis of C 60 cyano- and azopolyderivatives

The cyanation of C 60 to C 60(CN) 18 and the aziridination of C 60 to C 60(NH) 9 were studied by an unrestricted broken spin symmetry Hartree-Fock approach implemented in semiempirical codes based on the AM1 technique. The calculations focused on the successive addition of CN and NH moieties to the fullerene cage following the identification of the target cage atoms as those with the highest atomic chemical susceptibilities calculated at each step. The results obtained were analyzed from the viewpoint of the parallelism between these derivatives as well as C 60 fluorides and hydrides. The difference between the first-stage C 60 chlorination and other sterically free processes is discussed. © Springer-Verlag 2011.