A Large Starphene Comprising Pentacene Branches

Starphenes are attractive compounds due to their characteristic physicochemical properties that inherited from acenes, making them interesting for organic electronics and optics. However, the instability low solubility of larger starphene homologs make synthesis extremely challenging. Herein, we present a new strategy leading pristine [16]starphene in preparative scale. Our approach is based on carbonyl-protected precursor thermally converted solid-state form neat [16]starphene, which then characterised with variety analytical methods, such as 13C CP-MAS NMR, TGA, MS MALDI, UV-Vis FTIR spectroscopy. Furthermore, high-resolution STM experiments unambiguously confirm its expected structure reveal moderate electronic delocalisation between pentacene arms. Nucleus-independent chemical shifts NICS(1) also calculated survey aromatic character.