Fullerene C 60 was suspended in a solution of CTPR8 and the suspension was sonicated using a tip sonicator, after which the reaction was centrifuged to remove excess fullerene particles. Initial observations were promising, as the supernatant retained some of the dark colour, signifying that some of the otherwise completely water-insoluble fullerene was solubilised through interactions with the protein. The CTPR8-C 60 hybrid material was purified from the supernatant by fast protein liquid chromatography (FPLC) (Fig. ). The absorption features of this new assembly confirmed the presence of the fullerene, with the appearance of the characteristic absorption bands at 266 and 343 nm and a shoulder around 450 nm (Fig. ). However, a substantial amount of free CTPR8 protein also eluted. The low extent of complex formation was attributed to poor dispersion of the fullerene in aqueous solutions even under sonication, thus coupling was attempted with a more water-soluble fullerene derivative C 60 pyrrolidine tris-acid (C 60 A) (Fig. ). In this case, a higher degree of functionalisation was achieved, clearly observed with just the naked eye from the intense brown-solution. UV/vis spectra of the CTPR8-C 60 A co-assembly clearly showed a depletion of the characteristic C60 fullerene band at 330 nm and the loss of the feature band at 430 nm associated with the saturation of a C=C double bond in the C 60 fullerene monoadduct, as well as considerable broadening of absorbance bands along the spectra (Fig. ). These absorption features of fullerene-based materials are typically attributed to interactions between fullerenes, e.g. in fullerene based colloids, C 60 films and aggregates.