Complexes of a bio-molecule and a C60 cage

C₆₀ is the most important fullerene cage and glycine is the simplest representative of a backbone unit of a protein. In this paper, the structures and the energies of glycine–C₆₀ complexes were calculated at the B3LYP/6-31G(d) level DFT. It was found that the binding of glycine to C₆₀ generated a slightly unstable complex via its amino nitrogen, a moderately unstable complex via its hydroxyl oxygen, and a very unstable complex via its carbonyl oxygen. This indicates that fullerene cages might be unable to form stable bindings to proteins via their amino nitrogen, hydroxyl oxygen and carbonyl oxygen active sites.