Unexpected and divergent mechanosynthesis of furanoid-bridged fullerene dimers C 120 O and C 120 O 2 .

An unexpected, divergent and efficient approach toward furanoid-bridged fullerene dimers C 120 O and C 120 O 2 was established under different solvent-free ball-milling conditions by simply using pristine C 60 as the starting material, water as the oxygen source and FeCl 3 as the mediator. The structures of C 120 O and C 120 O 2 were unambiguously established by single-crystal X-ray crystallography. A plausible reaction mechanism is proposed on the basis of control experiments. Furthermore, C 120 O 2 has been applied in organic solar cells as the third component and exhibits good performance.