Reports: SE

48234-SE Fullerene Fragments and Carbon Nanotubes: Designed Synthesis, Unusual Reactions, and Coordination Chemistry, at the ACS National Meeting, August 17-21, 2008, Philadelphia, PA

Marina A. Petrukhina, State University of New York at Albany

The ACS PRF grant supported travel of three international speakers to the symposium held at the 236th ACS meeting in Philadelphia (August 18, 2008). The symposium entitled “Fullerene Fragments and Carbon Nanotubes: Designed Synthesis, Unusual Reactions, and Coordination Chemistry” was sponsored jointly by the Inorganic and Organic Chemistry Divisions of the ACS. The symposium organizers were Prof. Marina A. Petrukhina (University at Albany, INOR) and Prof. Lawrence T. Scott (Boston College, ORGN). 

The symposium topic represented a fundamental and novel research area of non-planar polyaromatic hydrocarbons that is directly related to the petroleum field. The symposium was devoted to progress in the development of rational chemical methods for the designed synthesis of fullerene fragments and carbon nanotubes and study of their chemical metalation reactions. This was the first meeting to reflect on intense and rapidly growing interest in open geodesic polyaromatic molecules (“buckybowls” or “fullerene fragments”) specifically focusing on their synthesis and reactivity in metal binding reactions. It brought together chemists from both the organic and inorganic divisions for the first time. It assembled almost all major contributors to this field and allowed their close interaction within the symposium program and beyond. The attendance of the one day symposium was about 50-60 people. For the first and last talk of each session, the attendance was more like 40-45. A significant number of students were present in the audience (30 - 35 %). Both organizers, Scot and Petrukhina, brought their full groups to the meeting, including total 12 graduate and 2 undergraduate students.

Outcome: The symposium led to the fostering new research collaborations between the participants, allowing many of them, especially those crossing from different disciplines, to meet for the first time and to find new venues for joint work. Importantly, students have been active participants of this symposium. They met all major contributors to the field and had close scientific interactions and discussions with them. Two senior graduate students, Belanger (Scott' group) and Filatov (Petrukhina's group), have presented oral talks at the symposium. Several posters have also been presented by students. 

The symposium was followed by an invitation from John Wiley & Sons Publishing asking Petrukhina and Scott to serve as editors for the book entitled “Fragments of Fullerenes and Carbon Nanotubes:  Designed Synthesis, Unusual Reactions, and Coordination Chemistry”. The contract agreement with John Wiley & Sons was signed and the book is expected to be published in 2011 (Editors: M. A. Petrukhina and L. T. Scott). Nine symposium participants will contribute chapters to the book, covering various aspects of this novel and exciting research area. This work is in progress.

A full list of speakers spanned the range from prominent scientists who are recognized leaders in the field to young researches just entering this research area (enclosed below).

Foreign speakers for whom support was received through ACS PRF SE grant are:

1) Professor Jay S. Siegel (University of Zurich, Switzerland): Aromatic Molecular-Bowl Hydrocarbons: Stereochemical Aspects of Corannulene Derivatives.

2) Professor Toshikazu Hirao (Osaka University, Japan): A Concave Bound CpFe Complex of Sumanene as a Dished-up Metal in a π-Bowl.

3) Lecturer Roy Shenhar (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel): Bicorannulenyl: Stereochemistry of a C40H18 Biaryl Composed of Two Chiral Bowls.

Additional speakers:

4) Professor Robert J. Angelici (Department of Chemistry, Iowa State University): Transition Metal Complexes of η6-Coordinated Corannulenes: Syntheses, Structures, and Reactivities.

5) Professor Paul R. Sharp (Department of Chemistry, University of Missouri-Columbia): The Unusual Bromination Chemistry of Pt(II) Complexes of Corannulene and Other Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons.

6) Professor Graham J. Bodwell (Department of Chemistry, Memorial University St. John's, NL, Canada): A Synthetic Approach to Substructures of (6,6) Armchair Nanotubes.

7) Professor Duy H. Hua (Department of Chemistry, Kansas State University): Syntheses, Self-Assemblies, and Application of Beltenes and Carbon Nanotubes.

8) Associate Professor Kathleen V. Kilway (Department of Chemistry, University of Missouri-Kansas City): Assembly of Novel Non-Planar Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons through Diels-Alder Reactions.

9) Associate Professor Benjamin T. King (Department of Chemistry, University of Nevada, Reno): The Regioselectivity of Addition to Carbon Nanotube Segments.

10) Assistant Professor James Mack (Department of Chemistry, University of Cincinnati): The Development of Corannulene-based Blue Emitters.

11) Associate Professor Andrzej Sygula (Department of Chemistry, Mississippi State University): Corannulene Pincers in Molecular Clips and Tweezers.

12) Professor Kung Wang (Department of Chemistry, West Virginia University): Synthesis of Bowl-Shaped Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons via Benzannulated Enyne-Allenes.

13) Anthony Belanger (Department of Chemistry, Boston College): Synthesis of Carbon Nanotubes from Petrochemical Derivatives by Rational Chemical Methods.

14) Alexander Filatov (Department of Chemistry, University at Albany): Imposing Strain Energy on a Molecular Level: Nonplanar Polyarenes as Templates for Bending Planar Metal Complexes.

We gratefully acknowledge the support provided by the ACS PRF SE program.