One of the most promising directions for the practical use of fullerene is the production of fullerene-based biologically active composite systems.
The wide range of biological activity of fullerene is due to the unique structure of the carbon spheroid, as well as its ability to attach various functional groups that have one or another type of biological activity.
Presently, functional fullerene derivatives are promising objects for application in various fields of science, medicine, and nanotechnology.
A variety of laboratory methods have been developed for the preparation of fullerene derivatives containing functional groups that are important from the point of view of practical application in medicine (fullerenols, fullerene amino acids) and nanotechnology (fullerene-containing organic semiconductor materials for solar cells, LEDs, field-effect transistors, etc.)
For a number of years, we have been studying the processes of obtaining amino acid derivatives of fullerene by the reaction of nucleophilic addition of amino acid salts of various compositions and structures to C60. The influence of the concentrations of the initial reagents and the nature of the interfacial catalyst, steric factors, electrostatic interaction of ionic groups, on the composition and structure of the resulting products was thoroughly studied.
These studies led to the development of a complete technological scheme for the synthesis of fullerene-amino acid compositions of a certain composition with the quantitative yield based on the used fullerene.
C60 fullerenes form absolutely transparent and stable in time true solutions with natural vegetable oils, which are completely harmless and compatible with animal and human organisms, exhibiting antioxidant properties. Modifying additions of fullerenes to oils, even at low concentrations, cause a sharp decrease in oxidizability (for example, by dissolved in the liquid phase and atmospheric oxygen), and an increase in the photostability and bactericidal activity of the liquid phase.
Water-soluble fullerenols, polyhydroxylated fullerenes, with the general formula of C60(OH)n, where n varies widely from 18 to 28 or more, are currently considered as the most promising C60 fullerene derivatives for widespread use, due to their high solubility in water, the possibility of further modification, and a pronounced ability to capture radicals.
Fullerenols exhibit low toxicity, high antioxidant, radioprotective, and hepatoprotective properties.