Synthesis of Functionalized Pentacenes from Isobenzofurans

Significance

Pentacene by itself undergoes rapid air oxidation, yet once stabilized by substituent groups, becomes an interesting synthetic target due to high hole mobilities in organic field-effect transistors amongst other things. Although many symmetrically substituted, stable pentacene derivatives have been synthesized, reports of unsymmetrical pentacenes with substituents in the 5-position are still rare. Here, the authors present the synthesis of one such example (1).