The structure of higher order C60-fullerene-γ-cyclodextrin complexes

C60 inclusion complexes in γ-cyclodextrin are studied by molecular mechanics and semi-empirical methods with the aim of comparing measured and calculated induced circular dichroism (ICD) spectra. Low energy geometries of the complexes are generated by Monte Carlo simulations, also accounting for solvation effects by an aqueous environment. The ICD spectrum of the complex is then obtained from an exciton model based on semi-empirical calculations of the transition energies and the corresponding transition moments. Highly symmetric, tightly bound complexes of two γ-cyclodextrins and buckminsterfullerene are found as the most probable structures. The main bands of the experimentally derived ICD spectrum are assigned to the excitation transitions of the chromophore and are discussed in comparison to calculations on the magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) spectrum of C60.