Langmuir, Vol.35, No.21, 6939-6949, 2019
Aggregation Behavior and Antioxidant Properties of Amphiphilic Fullerene C-60 Derivatives Cofunctionalized with Cationic and Nonionic Hydrophilic Groups
Amphiphilic derivatives of fullerene C-60 are attractive from viewpoints of supramolecular chemistry and biomedicine. The establishment of relationships among the molecular structure, aggregation behavior and properties such as scavenging radicals of the amphiphilic C-60 derivatives is the key to push these carbon nanomaterials to real applications. In this work, six monosubstituted C-60 derivatives were synthesized by a one-step quaternization of their neutral precursors, which bear Percec monodendrons terminated with oligo(poly(ethylene oxide)) (o-PEO) chain(s). The main difference among the C-60 derivatives lies in the number and substituted position of the o-PEO chain(s) within the Percec monodendron. Derivative with a 4-substitution of the o-PEO chain still showed limited solubility in water. Other derivatives possessing two or three o-PEO chains exhibited much improved solubilities and rich aggregation behavior in water. It was found that the formation of aggregates is regulated both by the number and the substituted pattern of the o-PEO chains. Typical morphologies include nanosheets, nanowires, vesicles, nanotubes, and nanorods. Although the structures of the C-60 derivatives are different from those of traditional surfactants, their aggregation behavior can be also well explained by applying the theory of critical packing parameter. Interestingly, the capabilities of the C-60 derivatives to scavenge the hydroxyl radicals (OH center dot-) followed the same order of their solubility in water, where the compound bearing three o-PEO chains with a 2,3,4-substitution got the champion quenching efficiency of similar to 97.79% at a concentration of 0.15 mg-mL(-1) (similar to 0.11 mmol-L-1).