Enhanced binding strengths of acyclic porphyrin hosts with endohedral metallofullerenes

The complementary use of spectroscopy and electrochemistry shed light onto the supramolecular interactions of calixarene scaffold bearing bisporphyrins 1 and 2 as hosts with a series of fullerenes –C60, Sc3N@C80, and Lu3N@C80 – as guest molecules. Importantly, the present work shows a noticeable variation in binding strength when C60 or endohedral fullerene guests are included into the bisporphyrins hosts. These sizeable differences could be clarified by computational models of the host–guest complexes, on the one hand, and a systematic investigation of the electron transfer chemistry, on the other hand. Detailed studies document an oxidative charge transfer (i.e., electron transfer from the bisporphyrin to the fullerene) for the C60 inclusion complexes, while a reductive charge transfer (i.e., electron transfer from the fullerene to porphyrin) is operative in the endohedral metallofullerene host–guest complexes.