Convergent synthetic pathways were devised for efficient synthesis of a series of uniformly 13C labeled polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons de novo from U-13C-benzene and other simple commercially-available 13C-starting compounds. All target products were obtained in excellent yields, including the alternant PAH U-13C-naphthalene, U-13C-phenanthrene, U-13C-anthracene, U-13C-benz[a]anthracene, U-13C-pyrene and the nonalternant PAH U-13C-fluoranthene.
