Polyynes to Polycycles: The Synthesis of π-Rich Molecules via Domino Electrophilic Cyclisation of Polyynes

Enhancing synthetic access of π-rich materials through the development of an atom economical domino cyclisation reaction, poly-electrophilic cyclisations (PEC). A bottleneck exists within materials science whereby research and development are limited by available synthetic methods that can afford diverse libraries of π-rich polycyclic systems. The one step PEC reaction cascade developed has been shown to readily afford structurally diverse acenes and heteroacenes, from polyyne starting materials. This work has therefore provided materials scientists with bespoke synthetic methods to afford ’tuneable’ electronically and photonically active materials for applications within organic electronics and biomedical imaging.