Materials chemistry of fullerene C ₆₀ derivatives

Despite the increasing interest of the scientific community in carbon nanotubes and graphene, fullerene C60 still plays an important role in the family of nanocarbons. A quarter of a century of research on fullerenes has been dedicated to understanding the way to produce stable, well-characterized and highly soluble fullerene derivatives, which retain the original properties of C60. The applications in a wide number of fields, especially on new materials design, have enriched the literature with fascinating examples where fullerenes are directly involved. We report here a brief summary of recent achievements in some exciting applications of fullerene derivatives.