A quantum-chemical study of intermediates of the 1O2 photogeneration sensitized by buckminsterfullerene and accompanying photochemical reactions

The intermediates of hypothetical photochemical reactions that accompany the quenching of the ³C ₆₀ ^* triplet state by triplet oxygen are studied by the (U)PBE0 quantum-chemical method. The diradical C₆₀-O-O formed from ³O₂ and photoexcited buckminsterfullerene ³C ₆₀ ^* is characterized by a negative binding energy ?1.11 eV (with respect to C₆₀ and ³O₂), the singlet-triplet splitting ΔE _ST of 0.07 eV, and the dipole moment of 3.2 D at the equilibrium internuclear separations 1.522 Å (CO) and 1.294 Å (OO). Its decay produces ¹O₂. The formation of a dioxetane circle lowers the energy by 0.8 eV. The ground-state energy of diketone C₅₈(C=O)₂ is 2.0 eV lower than the energy of C₆₀-O-O. The metastable centrosymmetric diradical C₆₀-C₆₀, formed upon ineffective light absorption by clusters (C₆₀)_N, has a single interpolyhedral C-C bond (1.657 Å). Its triplet state T ₁ lies 0.16 eV higher than the S ₁ singlet. The S ₁ → S ₀ relaxation leads to the formation of a stable C₆₀-C₆₀ dimer with a shorter (1.584 Å) bis-single exothermic (+0.24 eV) bond of polyhedra. The photoexcited C₆₀-C₆₀ dimer is able to form isomeric metastable diradicals C₆₀-C₆₀-O-O.