Besides having a strange taste in humour, we wacky Europeans are also a bit crazy. Soccer-crazy.

In less than two weeks, the European Football Championship is starting. On this occasion, I would like to present the first bis(alkinylplatinum(II))-based fullerene receptor (1). A fullerene, such as C 60 (2) is readily recognised by this box-shaped metal complex. The association reaction can be accelerated by arylacetylene 3, which contains two hydroxylamine functionalities that serve as a catalytic dyad.

(I know this is silly, but I rather like to draw nanoputians…)