One-pot synthesis of benzofluorene fused aromatic hydrocarbons

A new and efficient synthetic approach for the one-pot construction of benzofluorene fused aromatic hydrocarbons was developed via a transient-directing group strategy. The palladium-catalyzed cascade reaction proceeded via consecutive arylation, cyclization and aromatization steps. Moderate to good yields along with broad functional group tolerance were achieved under mild reaction conditions.