End-Substituted Pentacenes

Significance

Pentacenes constitute a class of compounds with potential applications as organic semiconductors. In order to overcome the low stability and solubility of unsubstituted pentacenes, various derivatives have been studied. This synthesis represents a homologation approach to pentacenes first developed by Takahashi and co-workers (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2000, 122, 12876). The novelty of this approach reported by the authors is that it is symmetric and requires fewer steps.