Principles of fullerene reactivity

The fullerenes have been established as new and versatile building blocks i n organic chemistry. A large number of fascinating fullerene derivatives, e specially of the icosahedral buckminsterfullerene C-60, have been synthesiz ed. The chemistry of C-60 continues to be good for many surprises. However, based on present knowledge a series of reactivity principles can be deduce d which makes derivatization of this all carbon cluster more and more predi ctable. In this article first the geometric and electronic properties of th e parent molecule are analyzed. The bent structure of the carbon network C- 60 and the filling of its molecular orbital with 60 pi-electrons dictate th e chemical reactivity. A very important aspect that was introduced with the investigation of fullerene chemistry is the shape dependence of reactivity .