Electrochemistry of perfluorinated fullerenes : the case of three isomers of C60F36

Abstract The structurally similar T , C 1 and C 3 isomers of C 60 F 36 show significant differences in electrochemical behaviour, the reduction potentials (vs. SCE) being 0.04, 0.07, and 0.12 V, respectively. The relative addend positions influence both the energetics of the first one-electron reduction of C 60 F 36 and the stability of electrochemically generated C 60 F 36 - . Thus whereas full reversibility of the first reduction is observed at scan rates as low as 0.5 V/s for C 3 -C 60 F 36 , reversible peaks were obtained for T - and C 1 -C 60 F 36 only at scan rates ⩾50 V/s. The subsequent multi-electron reductions of C 60 F 36 occur at more negative potentials, and are accompanied by irreversible loss of fluorides, analogous to the behaviour of other perfluorinated fullerenes.