Fullerenes and related carbon based derivatives have shown a growing relevance in biology and medicine, mainly due to the unique electronic and structural properties that make them excellent candidates for multiple functionalization. This review focuses on the most recent developments of fullerene derivatives for different biological applications.

This comprehensive review describes the fullerenes reported in perovskite solar cells since the first report in 2013.

This Communication details the implementation of a new concept for the design of high-performance optoelectronic materials: three-dimensional (3D) graphene nanostructures. This general strategy is showcased through the synthesis of a three-bladed propeller nanostructure resulting from the coupling and fusion of a central triptycene hub and helical graphene nanoribbons. Importantly, these 3D graphene nanostructures show remarkable new properties that are distinct from the substituent parts. For example, the larger nanostructures show an enhancement in absorption and decreased contact resistance in optoelectronic devices. To show these enhanced properties in a device setting, the nanostructures were utilized as the electron-extracting layers in perovskite solar cells. The largest of these nanostructures achieved a PCE of 18.0%, which is one of the highest values reported for non-fullerene electron-extracting layers.

Remarkable recent advances on Au(SR) nanoclusters have led to significant applications in catalysis, sensing, and magnetism. However, the existing synthetic routes are complicated, particularly for the water-soluble Au(SG) nanoclusters. Here, we report a single-step concentration and temperature-controlled method for rapid synthesis of the Au(SG) nanoclusters in as little as 2 h without the need for low-temperature reaction or even stirring. A systematic time-based investigation was carried out to study the effects of volume, concentration, and temperature on the synthesis of these nanoclusters. Further, we discovered for the first time that the Au(SG) nanoclusters exhibit excellent photothermal activities in achieving 100% cell death for MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells at a power of 10 W/cm using an 808 nm laser source, demonstrating applications toward photothermal therapy.

Inverted planar structure perovskite solar cells (PSCs), due to their low-temperature precessing and lack of hysteretic problems, are attracting increased attention by researchers around the world. Fullerene derivatives are the most widely used electron transport materials (ETMs) in inverted planar perovskite solar cells, especially [6,6]-phenyl-C-butyric acid methylester (PCBM), which exhibits very good performance. However, to the best of our knowledge, the influence of adducts on fullerene-based PSCs performance has not been fully explored to date. In this work, two fullerene derivatives, 2,5-(dimethyl ester) C fulleropyrrolidine (DMEC) and the analogous C derivative (DMEC), were synthesized in high yield via a 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction at room temperature and incorporated into CHNHPbI perovskite solar cells as electron transport materials. Possibly because the attached pyrrolidine ester groups are able to coordinate with the perovskite layer, the devices based on DMEC and DMEC achieved power conversion efficiencies (PCE) of 15.2% and 16.4%, respectively. Not only were both devices' efficiencies higher than those based on PCBM and PCBM, but their stabilities were also higher than those for PCBM-based devices. The results suggest that DMEC and DMEC are better alternatives than PCBM and PCBM for the ETMs in PSCs.