Design, synthesis, and controllable transformation of bowl-shaped heterosumanenes

Buckybowls are the key intermediate structures for transforming planar polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) into fullerenes, and they show unique physical and chemical properties as compared with PAHs and fullerenes. In this review, we summarize our recent progress on the bowl-shaped heterosumanenes, including molecular design rationale, highly efficient synthetic strategies, structure-property relationship, chemical reactions, and controllable transformation. It is proved that trichalcogenasumanenes (TCSs) can serve as a promising scaffold to create unconventional polycylces with structural and property diversity such as red fluorescence hetero-PAHs, molecular spoon with multi-functionality, electron-acceptors, and chiral π-system.