The Regioselectivity of Bingel–Hirsch Cycloadditions on Isolated Pentagon Rule Endohedral Metallofullerenes

AbstractIn this work, the Bingel–Hirsch addition of diethylbromomalonate to all non‐equivalent bonds of Sc3N@D3h‐C78 was studied using density functional theory calculations. The regioselectivities observed computationally allowed the proposal of a set of rules, the predictive aromaticity criteria (PAC), to identify the most reactive bonds of a given endohedral metallofullerene based on a simple evaluation of the cage structure. The predictions based on the PAC are fully confirmed by both the computational and experimental exploration of the Bingel–Hirsch reaction of Sc3N@D5h‐C80, thus indicating that these rules are rather general and applicable to other isolated pentagon rule endohedral metallofullerenes.