Composition-selective full inclusion host-guest interaction of azobenzene-containing photoresponsive nanoring with fullerene C60.

By means of density functional theory calculations, the encapsulation capabilities of a series of azobenzen-containing photoresponsive nanoring hosts (labeled as host 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 according to the number of the azo unit, respectively) for fullerene C60 were surveyed. Interestingly and abnormally, it is found that the host 5, of which the diameter is only 1.218 nm, can form stable full inclusion complex with C60 . However, irrespective of their cavity sizes (11.98 ~ 12.94 Å) of the hosts, the structures 1 ~ 4 and 6 were all disable to form inclusion complex with C60 . In this paper, the group-number-composition-selective full inclusion host-guest interaction of the azobenzene-containing nanorings with fullerene C60 is firstly presented. The calculated interaction energies, together with the detection and visualization of the weak interaction regions, provided evidences for the host-guest binding based on relative strong repulsion interaction in the full inclusion complex. Analysis on the frontier orbital feature of the host-guest systems suggests that under the electron excited condition, the chemical activity may be transferred from host 5 to guest C60 by formation of the floating host-guest complex, and the chemical reactivity of the host 5 can be passivated via formation of the full inclusion host-guest complex. Additionally, UV-vis-NIR and 1 H NMR spectra of the hosts before and after the formations of the complexes have been simulated and discussed qualitatively, which may be helpful for further experimental investigations in future.