Pentafluorophenyl transfer reaction: preparation of pentafluorophenyl [60]fullerene adducts through opening of fullerene epoxide moiety with trispentafluorophenylborane.

Unlike the extensively studied perfluoroalkyl fullerene adducts, perfluorophenyl fullerene adducts are quite difficult to prepare by known methods. Trispentafluorophenylborane was found to react with fullerene epoxide to form the 1,2-perfluorophenylfullerenol. The method can be applied to both the simple epoxide C60(O) and fullerene multiadducts containing an epoxide moiety. Single crystal X-ray structure analysis confirmed the addition of the pentafluorophenyl group.