Isolation and characterisation of symmetrical C60Me6, C60Me5Cl and C60Me5O2OH, together with unsymmetrical C60Me5O3H, C60Me5OOH, C60Me4PhO2OH, and C60Me12; fragmentation of methylfullerenols to C58

Reaction of freshly prepared C60Cl6 (from chlorination of [60]fullerene by ICl in benzene) with methyllithium followed by hydrolysis and work-up including HPLC separation yields Cs symmetry C60Me6 (isostructural with C60Br6 and C60Cl6), together with unsymmetrical C60Me12 which is comprised of two of the motifs present in C60Me6 and must arise from the presence of a small amount of C60Cl12 in the C60Cl6. From the same reaction mixture we have also obtained C60Me5Cl [isostructural with C60Ar5Cl and C60(OR)5Cl], hydroxyepoxides [C60Me5O2OH (symmetrical), C60Me5OOH and C60Me4PhO2OH (both unsymmetrical)] and unsymmetrical C60Me5O3H (a cage-opened ketone). The results provide further information concerning the addition patterns and mechanistic features of fullerene chemistry, show that methylated, arylated, alkoxylated and halogenated [60]fullerenes are isostructural, and that C60Cl6 also contains traces of C60PhCl5. Some of the compounds give exceptionally high intensities of the C58+ fragmentation ion during EI mass spectrometry.