Ultra-Fast Dendritic Growth Based on the Grafting of Fullerene Hexa-Adduct Macromonomers onto a Fullerene Core

A fullerene hexa‐adduct building block bearing an azide functionality was prepared in six steps, and grafted onto a central fullerene core under copper‐catalyzed azide–alkyne cycloaddition conditions. The resulting tridecafullerene derivative is a first generation dendrimer with 132 peripheral ethyl ester groups. This compound was characterized by different spectroscopic techniques (1H and 13C NMR, IR, UV/Vis), and by MALDI‐TOF mass spectrometry. Despite a high degree of fragmentation, the molecular‐ion peak was detected, and all the observed fragments originate from a fully clicked derivative. This shows that the construction of dendrimers in a single dendritic growth step from fullerene hexa‐adduct macromonomers is an efficient strategy to produce monodisperse compounds. A fullerene hexa‐adduct building block bearing an azide functionality was prepared in six steps, and grafted onto a central fullerene core under copper‐catalyzed azide–alkyne cycloaddition conditions. The resulting tridecafullerene derivative is a first generation dendrimer with 132 peripheral ethyl ester groups.