Imposing Curvature on a Polyarene by Intramolecular Palladium-Catalyzed Arylation Reactions:  A Simple Synthesis of Dibenzoa,gcorannulene

Palladium catalysis has been found to offer an effective solution-phase alternative to gas-phase flash vacuum pyrolysis as a method for converting the planar ring system of 7, 10-di(2-bromophenyl)fluoranthene (4) to that of the C(28)H(14) bowl-shaped fullerene fragment dibenzoa,gcorannulene (5).