Capturing the Fused-Pentagon C74 by Stepwise Chlorination

As a bridge to connect medium-sized fullerenes, fused-pentagon C74 is still missing heretofore. Of 14 246 possible isomers, the first fused-pentagon C74 with the Fowler–Manolopoulos code of 14 049 was stabilized as C74Cl10 in the chlorine-involving carbon arc. The structure of C74Cl10 was identified by X-ray crystallography. The stabilization of pristine fused-pentagon C74 by stepwise chlorination was clarified in both theoretical simulation with density functional theory calculations and experimental fragmentation with multistage mass spectrometry.