The main advantage to using this method is that it has a lot of synthetic control.3 Fullerene precursors with nitrogen heteroatoms installed on them can be synthesized, and after the fullerene has formed the nitrogen will stay in it’s preselected place.3 This allows for making very specific fullerenes that could be needed for other reactions.3 For example triazafullerene, C57H33N3, has successfully been created using this method.3
This is a step toward a potential route to hetero- and endohedral metallo-fullerenes; as well as adapting this synthesis in a way so they can encapsulate small molecules inside the fullerene.3
While scientists are still presently researching ways to adapt the surface catalyzed synthesis; Kurotobi and Murata discovered a synthetic route to insert a single water molecule into a