The century-old yet synthetically underexplored anthracene photodimerization–cycloreversion reactions have been employed as the key steps to access highly strained aromatic hydrocarbons. Herein we report the chemical syntheses of oligoparaphenylene-derived nanohoops in five steps or less featuring a rigid dianthracene synthon. The newly synthesized nanohoops display intriguing experimental and computational properties.

J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2016, 138 (35), pp 11144–11147
DOI: 10.1021/jacs.6b07673

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/suppl/10.1021/jacs.6b07673