Synthesis From 16 to 3 Steps

The preceding section indicated the importance of corannulene as the smallest member of the family of bowl-shaped, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons modeling the surface of buckminsterfullerene. Surprisingly, despite its obvious significance in relationship to the theory of aromaticity, 8 had not attracted the attention of chemists prior to the first report of its synthesis in 1966. As Barth and Lawton noted ... to the time of our first report, it appears this structure had neither adoriied the jacket or end cover of any book nor served as a symbol of an international symposium. More than that, corannulene does not appear to have been suggested in the chemical literature prior to 1966. 

Two years later, Craig and Robinson attempted an alternative synthesis of 8 with a more symmetrical pathway starting from derivatives of fluoranthene. Cycliza-tion of fluoranthene-7,10-diacetic acid 14 was attempted to produce diketone 15, expected to enolize to the dihydroxycorannulene 16. Unfortunately, several attempts at cyclization failed, including anhydrous hydrofluoric acid, concentrated sulfuric acid, and polyphosphoric acid. Friedel-Crafts cyclization of the corresponding acid chloride of 14 with aluminum or stannic chloride was similarly unsuccessful. However, although Craig and Robinson were not successful, they developed a convenient synthesis of 7,10-disubstituted fluoranthenes which turned out later to be of premium importance in a new, successful synthesis of corannulene. 

The decisive break came in 1991 when Scott and co-workers reported the formation of corannulene from 7,10-diethynylfluoranthene 19 under flash vacuum pyrolysis (FVP) conditions. The critical features of this approach appear to be the high temperature employed (900-1000 °C) and the gas-phase conditions. The high temperature provides energy for drastic fluctuations in 8 away from its equilibrium geometry, allowing the reactive centers to come close enough to form the new bonds while the gas-phase conditions prevent polymerization (although some polymeri- 

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