Nonlinear optical properties of novel fullerene–ferrocene hybrid moleculesElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: complete experimental procedure, including NMR, FTIR, MS, elemental analysis/HRMS, cyclic voltammetric and UV-vis absorption data for 1–3. See http://www.rsc.org/suppdata/jm/b2/b211019a/

A series of novel fullerene–ferrocene derivatives has been synthesized and their NLO properties investigated. Ferrocene acts as a donor and fullerene as a good acceptor, leading to large hyperpolarizabilities, especially in the case of the compound with the longest π-conjugation system, which exhibits the highest β value.