Synthesis of partially and fully fused polyaromatics by annulative chlorophenylene dimerization

Abstract

How to get two bonds for the price of one For more than a century, we have known how to couple aryl chlorides at the sites of their C-Cl bonds to form a single C-C bond. Koga et al. found that palladium catalysis can instead activate these C-Cl bonds to attack nearby aromatic C-H bonds in a terphenyl molecular framework. The reaction thereby produces a new ring, fused to the original rings on either side. Polycyclic compounds of this sort are of particular interest in optoelectronics research because of their expansive electron delocalization. Science , this issue p. 435