An efficient pathway to high persistence length helicenes from scalable [4]-helicene synthons

6π-electrocyclization. [11]-Helicene product yields are enhanced from 7 to 42% by maintaining photoreaction temperatures above 40 °C limiting linear and cyclobutane byproduct formation while recrystallization yielded diastereo-enrichment. This work enables the end goal of embedding enantiopure hydroxy-terminated helicenes into polymer backbones to create chiroptical responsive strain sensors.