title: Synthesis of a basket-shaped C56H38 hydrocarbon as a precursor toward an end-cap template for carbon [6,6]nanotubes.
abstract: A basket-shaped C(56)H(38) hydrocarbon (3) possessing a 30-carbon difluorenonaphthacenyl core that can be mapped onto the surface of C(78) was synthesized from 4-bromo-1-indanone. The first stage of the synthesis involved the preparation of tetraketone 10 as a key intermediate. The use of cascade cyclization reactions of benzannulated enyne-allenes as key features in the next stage of the synthetic sequence provides an efficient route to 3 from 4-bromo-1-indanone in 12 steps. The all-cis relationship among the methyl groups and the methine hydrogens causes the two benzofluorenyl units in 3 to be in an essentially perpendicular orientation to each other. Hydrocarbon 3 and its derivatives could serve as attractive precursors leading to a geodesic C(68)H(26) end-cap template for carbon [6,6]nanotubes.
authors.affiliation: C. Eugene Bennett Department of Chemistry, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia 26506-6045, USA.
authors.forename: Hu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.forename: Novruz G
authors.initials: NG
authors.lastname: Akhmedov
authors.forename: Jeffrey L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Petersen
authors.forename: Kung K
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Wang