Palladium-catalyzed intramolecular aerobic oxidative cross-coupling of BH/CH between o-carborane and arenes.

An efficient Pd-catalyzed regioselective intramolecular aerobic oxidative dehydrocoupling of BH/CH between o-carborane and arenes has been achieved with the construction of a series of five-, six- and seven-membered rings under mild reaction conditions. Control experiments indicate that B-H activation proceeds preferentially over the aryl C-H. These new polyarene-carborane conjugates have potential applications in materials as demonstrated by pyrene fused o-carborane that exhibits unique dual-phase emission, intramolecular charge transfer (ICT), and aggregation-induced emission (AIE) properties.