A novel [2]rotaxane has been prepared in which fullerene C60 behaves as both a stopper and a photoactive unit. The amphiphilic nature of the
rotaxane thread can be used to shuttle the macrocycle from close to the fullerene spheroid (in nonpolar solvents) to far away (in polar
solvents). The differing location of the macrocycle in dichloromethane and dimethyl sulfoxide gives rise to effects detectable by 1H NMR and
time-resolved spectroscopy
