Stacked homodimers of substituted contorted hexabenzocoronenes and their complexes with C fullerene.

Stacking interactions involving substituted contorted hexabenzocoronene (c-HBC) with C were studied at the B97-D3M(BJ)/TZVPP//B97-D/TZV(2d,2p) level of theory. First, we showed that substituent effects in benzeneC complexes are uncorrelated with those in the benzene sandwich dimer, underscoring the importance of local, direct interactions in substituent effects in stacking interactions. Second, we showed that c-HBC preferentially forms stacked homodimers over complexes with C; however, if the bowl depth of c-HBC is increased beyond 1.25 Å, the c-HBCC complex becomes preferred over the c-HBC homodimer. Ultimately, we showed that the perfluorination of c-HBC leads to sufficient curvature to allow the c-HBCC heterodimers to form preferentially over c-HBC homodimers, suggesting the possibility of the development of c-HBC derivatives that assemble into alternating stacks with C.