We show here that the recently reported surprisingly large association constant (K = 7.6 × 10⁴ M⁻¹) between azulene and [60]fullerene is due to experimental artifacts, pointing out potential errors in the characterization of association equilibria by fluorescence spectroscopy, and suggesting the best experimental practices.

High-yield, rapid and facile synthesis of elongated pure anatase titania nanoparticles has been achieved through a nonaqueous microwave-based approach. The residual organics onto nanoparticles surfaces were completely removed through a new treatment under ozone flow, at room temperature in air. Such an ozone cleaning method revealed an effective inexpensive dry process of removing organic contaminants from nanoparticles surfaces. The TiO₂ elongated nanoparticles having a length of 13.8 ± 5.5 nm and a diameter of 9.0 ±1.2 nm were characterized by powder X-Ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, selected area diffraction, BET surface area analyzer and FT-IR spectroscopy. Photocatalytic evaluation demonstrated that the as-synthesized ozone-cleaned TiO₂ nanoparticles and TiO₂ nanoparticles loaded with platinum possess excellent Rhodamine B performance with respect to both commercial spherical nanotitania P25 and P25 loaded with platinum. This could be attributed to the anatase phase purity, small size, large specific surface area and clean surfaces of the prepared nanoparticles.

The relative contributions of several weak intermolecular forces to the overall stability of the complexes formed between structurally related receptors and [60]fullerene are compared, revealing a discernible contribution from concave–convex complementarity.