Alpha-cyclodextrin based anion receptors functionalised with pendant arms containing halogen and hydrogen bond donor motifs display selective association of perrhenate in aqueous media at neutral pH. NMR and ITC anion binding investigations reveal the halogen bonding receptor to be the superior host.

The powerful electron accepting ability of fullerenes makes them ubiquitous components in biomimetic donor-acceptor systems that model the intermolecular electron transfer processes of Nature's photosynthetic centre. Exploiting perylene diimides (PDIs) as components in cyclic host systems for the noncovalent recognition of fullerenes is unprecedented, in part because archetypal PDIs are also electron deficient, making dyad assembly formation electronically unfavourable. To address this, we report the strategic design and synthesis of a novel large, macrocyclic receptor comprised of two covalently strapped electron-rich bis-pyrrolidine PDI panels, nicknamed the "Green Box" due to its colour. Through the principle of electronic complementarity, the Green Box exhibits strong recognition of pristine fullerenes (C60/70), with the non-covalent ground and excited state interactions that occur upon fullerene guest encapsulation characterised by a range of techniques including electronic absorption, fluorescence emission, NMR and time-resolved EPR spectroscopies, cyclic voltammetry and mass spectrometry. Whilst relatively low polarity solvents result in partial charge transfer in the host donor-guest acceptor complex, increasing the polarity of the solvent medium facilitates rare, thermally allowed full electron transfer from Green Box to fullerene in the ground state. Both species in the ensuing charge separated radical ion paired complex are spectroscopically characterised, with thermodynamic reversibility and significant kinetic stability also demonstrated. Importantly, the Green Box represents a seminal type of C60/70 host where electron-rich PDI motifs are utilised as recognition motifs for fullerenes, facilitating novel intermolecular, solvent tuneable ground state electronic communication with these guests. The ability to switch between extremes of the charge transfer energy continuum is without precedent in synthetic fullerene-based dyads.

A rotaxane host system containing a novel halogen bonding (XB) 5-iodo-1,2,3-triazole functionalised pyridinium motif, within its axle component, has been prepared via a ring closing metathesis reaction, using chloride as a template. Proton NMR titration experiments, in competitive 1 : 1 CDCl3-CD3OD solvent media, showed the XB rotaxane selectively bound halides over larger, more basic oxoanions. An all hydrogen bonding proto-triazole containing rotaxane analogue was also prepared, which in stark contrast demonstrated a reversal in the anion selectivity trend, with a preference for dihydrogen phosphate over the halides which is unprecedented for an interlocked host system.

The first water-soluble derivative of the paramagnetic endohedral fullerene N@C has been prepared through the covalent attachment of a single addend containing two permethylated β-cyclodextrin units to the surface of the carbon cage. The line width of the derivative's EPR signal is highly sensitive to both the nature of the solvent and the presence of Cu(ii) ions in solution.

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An N@C60-containing C60 tetramer was synthesized by quadruple 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition (Prato) reaction. This molecule demonstrates the N@C60 qubit's ability to form covalently linked arrays. Furthermore, it provides a promising scaffold with which to measure multiple qubit–qubit interactions; which must be well characterized for a functioning quantum information processing architecture.

N@C60 is a paramagnetic endohedral fullerene species comprised of a single nitrogen atom incarcerated within a C60 carbon cage. Shielding of the nitrogen from the external environment results in extremely long relaxation times of its electron spin (T1 = 0.375 ms, T2 = 0.25 ms). This provides the molecule with a very sharp EPR signal,1 which undergoes observable dipolar broadening in the presence of other paramagnetic species, suggesting that N@C60 derivatives would be ideal candidates as spin probes for biological applications.2–4 In order for this to be realised functionalisation of the inherently hydrophobic fullerene cage must be undertaken to render it compatible with aqueous environments. Several methodologies for the solubilisation of empty cage and other endohedral fullerene species have been demonstrated,5–7 however many of these are unsuitable for use with N@C60 due to its instability at elevated temperatures.8 Herein we report the first examples of water-soluble derivatives of N@C60, prepared using an adaptation of the widely used Bingel reaction.9 Preliminary investigations towards the use of these materials as electron paramagnetic resonance imaging (EPRI) agents is also discussed.10 1 J. J. L. Morton, A. M. Tyryshkin, A. Ardavan, K. Porfyrakis, S. A. Lyon and G. Andrew D. Briggs, J. Chem. Phys., 2006, 124, 014508. 2 K.-P. Dinse, H. Käß, C. Knapp and N. Weiden, Carbon, 2000, 38, 1635–1640. 3 G. Liu, A. N. Khlobystov, G. Charalambidis, A. G. Coutsolelos, G. A. D. Briggs and K. Porfyrakis, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2012, 134, 1938–1941. 4 S. Zhou, M. Yamamoto, G. A. D. Briggs, H. Imahori and K. Porfyrakis, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2016, 138, 1313–1319. 5 J. Li, A. Takeuchi, M. Ozawa, X. Li, K. Saigo and K. Kitazawa, J. Chem. Soc. Chem. Commun., 1993, 0, 1784–1785. 6 M. Brettreich and A. Hirsch, Tetrahedron Lett., 1998, 39, 2731–2734. 7 I. Rašović, Mater. Sci. Technol., 2016, 0, 1–18. 8 A. Iwasiewicz-Wabnig, K. Porfyrakis, G. A. D. Briggs and B. Sundqvist, Phys. Status Solidi B, 2009, 246, 2767–2770. 9 S. Zhou, I. Rašović, G. A. D. Briggs and K. Porfyrakis, Chem. Commun., 2015, 51, 7096–7099. 10 S. P. Cornes, S. Zhou and K. Porfyrakis, Chem. Commun., 2017, DOI:10.1039/C7CC07106J. Figure 1

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