Stereoelectronically-induced allosteric binding: shape complementarity promotes positive cooperativity in fullerene/buckybowl complexes

Abstract

A novel 2 : 1 host-guest complex forms between 8-tert-butyl-6b(2)-azapenta-benzo[bc,ef,hi,kl,no]corannulene (1) and C-60 with positive cooperativity (alpha = 2.56) and high affinity (K-1 x K-2 = 2.8 x 10(6) M-2) at 25 degrees C. The C-60 undergoes increasing shape complementarity toward 1 throughout the binding process.