Palladium-mediated formation of bowl-shaped PAHs: synthesis of as-Indaceno

Bowl-shaped fullerene fragments, as-indaceno[3,2,1,8,7, 6-pqrstuv]picenes, can be synthesized by a double palladium-mediated cyclization in good to excellent yield. The structure of 1, 8-dimethyl as-indaceno[3,2,1,8,7,6-pqrstuv]picene was confirmed by X-ray analysis. The high yields, mild reaction conditions, and wide range of functional group tolerance are advantages of this method over existing FVP and reductive coupling routes to bowl-shaped PAHs.