Nanographenic bowls based on contorted hexabenzocoronene: Synthesis, structure, and supramolecular assembly with fullerene C 60
- Yixun Sun
- Bo Yang
- Min Jia
- Jing Guo
- Yiting Wang
- Jiale Hu
- Xin Xu
- Qingxiang Liang
- Jingshuang Dang
- Juan Fan
- Jing Li
- Huaming Sun
- Junfa Wei
2026-05-01
Buckybowls, the curved fragments of fullerenes, are attractive synthetic targets for exploring carbon nanomaterials, but constructing atomically well-defined, large multilayered architectures remains a formidable challenge. Here we report the synthesis of a class of coronene-bottomed nanographenic bowls, namely, tricarbon-annulated trifluorenocoronenes (TCTFCs), based on a contorted hexa- cata -hexabenzocoronene ( c -HBC) skeleton. Two TCTFC derivatives bearing gem -diaryl or gem -dialkyl appendages were prepared via a “branching arms cyclization” (BAC) strategy. X-ray crystallography unambiguously confirms their C 3 -symmetric bowl-shaped geometry with bowl depths up to 2.3 angstrom and diameters exceeding 1 nanometer. These bowls exhibit red-shifted absorption/emission profiles, enhanced electron affinity, and reduced aromaticity relative to the c -HBC derivative. Notably, both compounds form 1:1 complexes with C 60 in solution, while their cocrystals adopt columnar or honeycomb packing motifs. This work establishes a synthetic paradigm in constructing fully edge-closed c -HBC–based buckybowls, further delivering fundamental insights into their substituent-dependent host-guest binding and supramolecular assembly.