Synthesis, Properties, and Potential Applications of Porphyrin-Fullerenes

The review focuses current research in the rapidly developing chemistry of porphyrin-fullerene complexes, and highlights recent advances in the synthesis, properties, and potential applications of this family. An overview of the most popular methods to prepare porphyrin complexes with C-60 fullerene exhibiting various types of linkage is given with the main focus on the Prato reaction and its modifications. The discussion of porphyrin-fullerene complexes will include the structures of noncovalently linked porphyrin-fullerenes along with the covalently linked complexes; the chemistry and design of supramolecular ensembles will be covered rather comprehensively. Finally, the potential applications for porphyrin-fullerene conjugates will be discussed.