Optimising key steps for efficient synthesis of 3,6-dihydroxy-2,7,10,11-tetrapentyloxytriphenylene

An improved synthesis route for 3,6-dihydroxy-2,7,10,11-tetrapentyloxytriphenylene with enhanced efficiency and high yield was reported. The convenient synthesis reported by our group previously involves a five-step procedure. In this method, a low-yield intermediate step which involves the heterogeneous copper-catalysed reaction between aryl iodides and the inorganic base KOH to synthesise phenols was avoided. Aryl halides were first converted to aryl boronic acids, and then oxidised to phenols using sodium perborate and subsequently protected through a one-pot tandem reaction. The improved method achieved an overall yield of 46%, representing a substantial increase over the previous methods.