Synthesis of 2,3-Diarylbenzo[b]thiophenes via Nickel-Catalyzed Suzuki-Miyaura Cross-Coupling and Palladium-Catalyzed Decarboxylative Arylation

We report a new approach to 2,3-diarylbenzo[b]thiophenes based on the nickel-catalyzed Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling/palladium-catalyzed decarboxylative arylation sequence of 3-chloro-2-methoxycarbonylbenzo[b]thiophenes, which are readily accessible from the corresponding cinnamic acids. In addition, this methodology can be applied to the concise synthesis of pi-extended 2,3,6,7-tetraarylbenzo[1,2-b;4,5-b']dithiophenes. Their optical properties are also described.