Synthesis of Rationally Halogenated Buckybowls by Chemoselective Aromatic C-F Bond Activation

Halogenated buckybowls or bowl-shaped polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (BS-PAHs) are key building blocks for the bottom-up synthesis of various carbon-based nanomaterials with outstanding potential in different fields of technology. The current state of the art provides quite a limited number of synthetic pathways to BS-PAHs; moreover, none of these approaches show high selectivity and tolerance of functional groups. Herein we demonstrate an effective route to BS-PAHs that includes directed intramolecular aryl-aryl coupling through C-F bond activation. The coupling conditions were found to be completely tolerant toward aromatic C-Br and C-Cl bonds, thus allowing the facile synthesis of rationally halogenated buckybowls with an unprecedented level of selectivity. This finding opens the way to functionalized BS-PAH systems that cannot be obtained by alternative methods.