Chemical reactivity of lithium‐doped fullerenes

The addition of free radicals and the 1,3 dipolar cycloaddition onto pristine and lithium‐doped C₆₀ were studied by means of the Perdew–Burke–Ernzerhof (PBE) and M06‐2X density functionals. In all cases, lithium increased the reactivity even though for the 1,3 dipolar cycloaddition onto C₆₀ the change observed with respect to bare C₆₀ was minimal. Both functionals employed gave similar encapsulation energies for Li@C₆₀ namely, 33.1 and 38.2 kcal/mol at the PBE/6‐31G* and M06‐2X/6‐31G*, respectively. However, the increased reactivity because of lithium doping determined at the PBE level is smaller as compared with that computed with the M06‐2X functional, whereas that determined at the second‐order Møller–Plesset (MP2) level is the largest one. For example, using the M06‐2X functional the binding energy of fluorine to Li@C₆₀ is 28.5 kcal/mol larger than that determined for C₆₀, whereas at the PBE/6‐31G* level it is predicted to be increased by 24.7 kcal/mol. The results clearly suggest that Li@C₆₀ is a much better free radical scavenger than C₆₀. Finally, the complex hindered rotations of lithium inside C₆₀ are expected to be strongly inhibited because lithium doping increases the well depth between the cage center and the equilibrium position near the addition site of the lithium atom. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.