CHEMISTRY OF FULLERENES - THE HIGH REACTIVITY AND NEW DEVELOPMENTS

The chemistry of fullerenes has expanded very rapidly in recent years. Since C-60 possesses considerably high electron affinity and low ionization potential, this molecule shows a high reactivity to organic reagents to give a variety of adducts. This review summarizes six types of reactions of C-60, i.e., cycloadditions, ionic additions, radical additions, halogenations, hydrogenations, and transition-metal-complex formations. The cycloadditions of C-60 have been studied very extensively to produce numbers of fullerenes with various substituents nts. There fore, these reactions have been classified into [1+2]-, [2+2]-, [3+2]-, [4+2] cycloadditions and the ene reaction. In addition to the reactions of C-60, some reactions of C-70 have been described.