Prof. Murata and Dr. Kurotobi, ”A Single Molecule of Water Encapsulated in Fullerene C60” (Published in Science, 29 July 2011)

Prof. Murata and Dr. Kurotobi

(Structural Organic Chemistry, Division of Synthetic Chemistry)

 

A Single Molecule of Water Encapsulated in Fullerene C60

 

Published in Science (Online Publication, 29 July 2011).

Prof. Y. Murata and Dr. K . Kurotobi
Dr. K. Kurotobi (presently, Assist. Prof. of iCeMS, Kyoto University) and Prof. Y. Murata in Structural Organic Chemistry Laboratory synthesized fullerene C60 encapsulating a single molecule of water.

A single molecule of H2O without any hydrogen bonds is completely isolated within the confined sub-nano space inside fullerene C60.  With the concept of dynamic control of opening size, an open-cage C60 derivative was synthesized, whose opening can be enlarged in situ at 120 ºC resulting in quantitative encapsulation of a molecule of H2O under the high-pressure conditions.  The easy method to restore the opening was developed to realize the organic synthesis of water-encapsulating C60.  The structure of H2O@C60 was clearly determined by the single crystal X-ray analysis, and the properties of the single H2O molecule as well as the spherical π-system encapsulating the water molecule were studied.
The result was published in Science (Online Publication, 29 July, 2011). 110802_1