Construction of Unsymmetrical Triphenylenes from Electron-Rich Biphenyls and Diaryliodonium Salts via Copper-Catalyzed Multiple C-H Arylation.

An efficient protocol to synthesize unsymmetrical triphenylenes from electron-rich biphenyls and diaryliodonium salts via Cu catalysis was developed. A variety of unsymmetrical triphenylenes with diversified functional groups were synthesized according to this method. This transformation went through multiple direct C-H arylations from easily produced starting materials with high step-economy. The gram-scale synthesis of triphenylenes and their facile transformation into diverse functional organic molecules were illustrated.