[60]Fullerene: a Versatile Photoactive Core for Dendrimer Chemistry

Owing to their special photophysical properties, fullerene derivatives are good candidates to demonstrate dendritic effects. In particular, the triplet lifetimes of a C60 core can be used to evaluate its degree of isolation from external contacts. On the other hand, the fullerene core can act as a terminal energy receptor in dendrimer-based light-harvesting systems. When a fullerodendrimer is further functionalized with a suitable electron donor, it may exhibit the essential features of a multicomponent artificial photosynthetic system in which photoinduced energy transfer from the antenna to the C60 core is followed by electron transfer.