report a facile transition-metal-freeapproach to sulfur-containing heteroacenes from fluorinated oligophenylenes. Unlike most existing methods, the presented approach is not restricted to simple dibenzothiophene derivatives and thus appears to be a useful tool for the synthesis of extended sulfur-containing heteroacenes. The incorporation of sulfur is unambiguously preprogrammed via the positions of
The irreversible photolytic axial to equatorial change (3ax–4ax→3eq–4eq) and the irreversible thermal equatorial to axial change (3eq–4eq→3ax–4ax) of the S–O configuration were first observed. Meanwhile, the shorter 1,9-bridged derivative (2ax) exhibited the interesting photolytic degradation, affording 1,9-dithiadibenzothiophene (5) by the elimination of SO and ethylene.
4,8,10-Trithiadibenzo[cd,ij]azulene 8-oxides were prepared and their photolysis provided a convenient procedure to yield the corresponding aldehydes and ketones together with 4,8,9-trithiacyclopenta[def]phenanthrene.