Photoinduced Electron Transfer in Dumbbell-type Fullerene Dyad

1,3-Dipolar cycloaddition of DTE-azomethine ylides (DTE: dithienyl-ethene) to C60 in refluxed toluene was used to synthesize novel dumbbell-type fullerene dimer 1. For the sake of comparison, the monoadduct 2 were also synthesized. The molecular geometries of these two compounds were determined by theoretical calculations with HF-3/21G method. UV-Vis and fluorescence experiments were carried out in solvents with different polarity at the room temperature. All the results indicated the existence of a photoinduced intramolecular electron transfer process between the donor and acceptor moieties.