Domino Direct Arylation and Cross-Aldol for Rapid Construction of Extended Polycyclic π‑Scaffolds

Five-membered aromatic heterocycles
are a ubiquitous skeleton of
π-conjugated organic compounds, and their incorporation requires
synthetic protocols that are not easily industrially sustainable or
scalable. Improved methodologies for their insertion into π-scaffolds
are therefore necessary. We report an efficient and scalable protocol
involving a one-pot cross-Aldol direct arylation reaction protocol
for the rapid construction of thiophene- and furan-based π-extended
organic materials.