Systematic investigation of the molecular behaviors of heterofullerenes C48X2 (X=B, N)

Abstract

A systematic investigation on all possible substituted fullerene isomers of C 48 B 2 and C 48 N 2 has been performed using the semiempirical methods AM1 and MNDO. The equilibrium geometrical structures, heats of formation, strain, aromaticity, HOMO–LUMO energy gaps, ionization potentials, electronic affinities, the absolute hardness and electronegativity have been studied. The results indicate that the isomer-78, which corresponds to 1,4-substitution in the six-membered ring located on the equator, is the most stable isomer for both C 48 B 2 and C 48 N 2 . The driving force governing the stabilities of the present studied C 48 X 2 (X=B, N) isomers is the strain being inherent in the C 50 cage. The contribution of the conjugation effect to the stabilization is not able to compete with that of the strain. From an application of the HSAB principle, the absolute hardness of the more stable isomers of both C 48 B 2 and C 48 N 2 are larger than that of C 50 , and the direction of electron flow for forming a complex among them may be C 48 N 2 →C 50 →C 48 B 2 according to the calculated absolute electronegativity. The more stable C 48 X 2 isomers have larger ionization potentials and smaller electronic affinities compared with C 50 , which suggests that it is more difficult to oxidize and reduce C 48 X 2 , i.e., the redox characteristics of C 50 can be weakened by doping. The vibrational spectra and electronic absorption spectra of these substituted fullerenes have been calculated, which could serve as a framework to interpret future experimental results. The computed nucleus independent chemical shifts (NICS) values also provide a basis for the possible characterization of these C 48 X 2 isomers.