Aryl–aryl coupling in a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon with embedded tetracoordinate boron centre†
Sven Kirschner,Song-Song Bao,Melina K. Fengel,Michael Bolte,Hans-Wolfram Lerner,Matthias Wagner
Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry Pub Date : 04/29/2019 00:00:00 , DOI:10.1039/C9OB00618D
Abstract

The addition of 2 eq. of MesLi to the biphenylene-containing 9,10-dihydro-9,10-diboraanthracene (DBA) 2 results in the formation of the corresponding oxaboraphenanthrene 3 after column chromatography under ambient conditions. In the initial step, the anionic B–Mes monoadduct of 2 is generated, which eliminates a formal [Mes2B:] ion with concomitant C–C-bond formation (room temperature, 18 h). The resulting biphenylene-containing borafluorene 4 is still sufficiently Lewis acidic to add the second equivalent of MesLi ([4Mes]). Using pristine 9-mesityl-9-borafluorene as a model system, we confirmed that both 4 and [4Mes] should be capable of inserting an oxygen atom to furnish the observed oxaboraphenanthrene scaffold. The biphenylene-containing oxaboraphenanthrene 3 is a yellow compound with an absorption maximum at λmax = 450 nm. Similar to its DBA analogue 2, 3 shows no photoluminescence.

Graphical abstract: Aryl–aryl coupling in a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon with embedded tetracoordinate boron centre