Oxidative cyclo-rearrangement of helicenes into chiral nanographenes

Nanographenes are emerging as a distinctive class of functional materials for electronic and optical devices. It is of remarkable significance to enrich the precise synthetic chemistry for these molecules. Herein, we develop a facile strategy to recompose helicenes into chiral nanographenes through a unique oxidative cyclo-rearrangement reaction. Helicenes with 7~9 ortho-fused aromatic rings are firstly oxidized and cyclized, and subsequently rearranged into nanographenes with an unsymmetrical helicoid shape through sequential 1,2-migrations. Such skeletal reconstruction is virtually driven by the gradual release of the strain of the highly distorted helicene skeleton. Importantly, the chirality of the helicene precursor can be integrally inherited by the resulting nanographene. Thus, a series of chiral nanographenes are prepared from a variety of carbohelicenes and heterohelicenes. Moreover, such cyclo-rearrangement reaction can be sequentially or simultaneously associated with conventional oxidative cyclization reactions to ulteriorly enrich the geometry diversity of nanographenes, aiming at innovative properties.