Regular arrays of C60-based molecular rotors mounted on the surface of tris(o-phenylenedioxy)cyclotriphosphazene nanocrystals.

Dielectric spectroscopy has been used to determine the barriers of rotation of surface-mounted fullerenes (2.3 ± 0.1 and 4.3 ± 0.1 kcal mol-1). In order to achieve this, a C60 derivative equipped with an anchoring group designed to form a surface inclusion with the hexagonal form of tris(o-phenylenedioxy)cyclotriphosphazene (TPP) has been synthesized. Solid-state NMR analysis revealed that approximately 50% of the surface-mounted molecules have a chemical environment different from the others suggesting two distinct insertion modes. These observations correlate with results of DFT calculations.