RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article T1 Golden molecular tweezers: dinuclear corannulene–Au(I) acetylide hosts for fullerene binding A1 Álvarez Llorente, Nerea A1 Diez De La Varga, Alberto A1 Masson, Eric A1 Barbero San Juan, Héctor A1 Álvarez González, Celedonio Manuel K1 Carbon nanomaterials K1 Hydrocarbons K1 Interaction energies K1 Ligands K1 Nanospheres K1 23 Química AB A series of homonuclear bimetallic organometallic complexes bearing two Au(I) atoms and two corannulene fragments have been synthesized, and their fullerene recognition properties were extensively studied in solution. The tether groups were diphosphine ligands with variable rigidity (namely, dppe, dppf, dppbenz, and xantphos) to cover a range of potential semisupported intramolecular aurophilic interactions. Experimental results showed that neither extreme flexibility nor rigidity favors fullerene binding, and in those cases where the metallophilic contact is present and assured by ligand design, this force might hinder the supramolecular assembly formation. Computational calculations clearly indicate that the aurophilic interaction is just another force that is playing a moderate role within the manifold forces involved in the recognition process. The most notable finding corresponded to host CAudppf, which exhibited the highest experimental performance toward fullerene binding within the studied family due to its good preorganization in a tweezer-like conformation despite the lack of proper aurophilic contact. Thorough theoretical studies strongly suggested that the Au(I)–Au(I) distance can be shortened upon complexation, effectively turning on the metallophilic interactions. PB American Chemical Society SN 0020-1669 YR 2026 FD 2026 LK https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/84052 UL https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/84052 LA eng NO Inorganic Chemistry, 2026, vol. 65, n. 14, p. 7704-7717 NO Producción Científica DS UVaDOC RD 20-abr-2026