Experimental electron density of sumanene, a bowl-shaped fullerene fragment; comparison with the related corannulene hydrocarbon.

The experimental electron density of sumanene, C(21)H(12), was extracted from a high resolution X-ray data set measured at 100 K and topologically analyzed. In addition to bond topological and atomic properties, information about the density distribution between adjacent molecules, which show close C···C approaches of ~3.4 Å within the columnar π-stacks in the crystal lattice, are discussed.