The Development of Synthetic Routes to 1,1,<i>n</i>,<i>n</i>‐Tetramethyl[<i>n</i>](2,11)teropyrenophanes

Abstract

A concise synthetic approach to 1,1, n , n ‐tetramethyl[ n ](2,11)teropyrenophanes has been developed. It involves the construction of triply‐bridged pyrenophanes, during which the three bridges are installed successively using Friedel‐Crafts alkylation, Wurtz coupling and McMurry reactions. At the same time, the innate regiochemical preferences of pyrene toward electrophilic aromatic substitution are relied upon to control the substitution pattern. A cyclodehydrogenation reaction is then employed to generate the teropyrene system directly in a nonplanar conformation. The crystal structure of 1,1,7,7‐tetramethyl[7](2,11)teropyrenophane was determined and the teropyrene system was found to have an end‐to‐end bend angle of 177.9°.