9,10,11,20,21,22-Hexaphenyltetra
benzo[
a,
c,
l,
n]pentacene (
1) was prepared
by the reaction of 1,3-diphenylphenanthro[9,10-
c]furan with the
bisaryne equivalent generated from 1,2,4,5-tetra
bromo-3,6-diphenyl
benzene in the presence of
n-
butyllithium, followed
by deoxygenation of the dou
ble adduct with low-valent titanium. The X-ray structure of
1 shows it to
be the most highly twisted polycyclic aromatic hydrocar
bon known, with an end-to-end twist of 143.6
. Compound
1 was resolved
by chromatography on a chiral support, and the pure enantiomers have specific rotations in excess of 7000
,
but the molecule racemizes slowly at 25
C (
t1/2 = 9.3 h,
Grac = 23.8 kcal/mol).