Chlorination-Promoted Cage Transformation of IPR C92 Discovered via Trifluoromethylation under Formation of Non-classical C92 (NC)(CF3 )22.

High-temperature trifluoromethylation of isolated-pentagon-rule (IPR) fullerene C92 chlorination products followed by HPLC separation of C92 (CF3 )n derivatives resulted in the isolation and X-ray structural characterization of IPR C92 (38)(CF3 )18 and non-classical C92 (NC)(CF3 )22 . The formation of C92 (38)(CF3 )18 as the highest CF3 derivative of the known isomer C92 (38) can be expected. The formation of C92 (NC)(CF3 )22 was interpreted as chlorination-promoted cage transformation of C92 (38) followed by trifluoromethylation of non-classical C92 (NC) chloride. Noticeably, C92 (NC)(CF3 )22 shows the highest degree of trifluoromethylation among all known CF3 derivatives of fullerenes. The addition patterns of C92 (38)(CF3 )18 and C92 (NC)(CF3 )22 are discussed and compared to the chlorination patterns of C92 (38)Cln compounds.