Inner-bond-cleavage approach to figure-eight macrocycles from planar aromatic hydrocarbons

Contemporary synthetic strategies in organic chemistry rely heavily on the stepwise formation of bonds between fragments of the target compound (‘bottom-up’ approach). Figure-eight aromatic macrocycles represent a considerable challenge for the bottom-up approach, and the lack of versatile synthetic routes to such macrocycles prevents the use of their distinctive chiral D2-symmetric structures in advanced materials. Herein, we demonstrate the oxidative cleavage of internal double bonds of planar polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons enables the scalable, catalytic, and enantioselective synthesis of figure-eight macrocycles. These macrocycles, with incorporated carbonyl groups, serve as a chiral electron-acceptor unit to furnish a thermally activated delayed fluorescence material with efficient circularly polarized luminescence. The inner-bond-cleavage approach is thus an effective alternative to the bottom-up approach, proving access to hitherto inaccessible materials.