Abstract
Cycloparaphenylenes (CPPs), the shortest structural unit of armchair carbon nanotube (CNT), efficiently encapsulate various fullerenes, such as C60, C70, and La@C82, forming the supramolecular complexes, the shortest CNT-fullerene peapods. The structures of the complexes were unambiguously determined and elucidated at a molecular level by single crystal X-ray analysis combined with computational analyses. The results distinctly clarify factors determining the peapod formation, such as importance of van der Waals interaction, elastic character of CPPs, and electronic interaction between CPPs and fullerenes. These findings would increase the understandings of structures and properties of fullerene-peapods and be useful for the rational design of hierarchically ordered π-materials having concave-convex π-π interactions.
