Organic nanosynthesis of diarylfluorene-based ladder-type gridarene isomers via intramolecular A1-B1 type Friedel-Crafts gridization

Abstract Fluorene-based ladder-type nanogrids have been synthesized via the stepwise and iterative Friedel-Crafts/Suzuki cross-coupling reactions, and efficient intramolecular gridization reaction could enhance yield up to ∼95%. Multiple configurational isomers were successfully separated with the yield of 10%, 20% and 65% for Grid-DFCz-1, Grid-DFCz-2 and Grid-DFCz-3 respectively. The molecular configurations of Grid-arene isomers were characterized and confirmed by the NMR spectra. We found that molecular configuration has little influence on photophysical and electrochemical properties.