Presentation description

Despite their growing importance, the synthesis of larger polycyclic aromatic compounds is
challenging, and helicenes are among the most difficult to prepare. Generally, as the number of
fused rings increases, the less commercially available a targeted polycyclic aromatic becomes.
Helicenes, a class of ortho-fused polycyclic aromatics, have seen increasing applications in
emerging fields, most notably for their use in the development of optical and electronic materials with desirable properties. Accordingly, modular and efficient strategies to prepare synthetic polycyclic ring systems from commercially available building blocks is of great interest. My research is focused on advancing a two-step process involving reductive cyclization and deaminative contraction reactions to convert synthetic tertiary amines into substituted naphthalenes and [5]helicenes. Improved access to these commercially limited compounds will enable technological innovations in materials science fields that rely on these designer polycyclic aromatics.