Aromatization of Highly Alkyl-substituted Dihydroanthracenes Using n-BuLi/TMEDA/MeI

Aromatization of highly alkyl-substituted dihydroanthracene was performed with the n-BuLi/TMEDA/MeI. Treatment of 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8-octapropyl-9,10-dihydroanthracene with 2.2 equiv of n-BuLi, TMEDA at 50 °C in hexane for 3 h, followed by 1.1 equiv of MeI at room temperature for 1 h gave the corresponding anthracene in 98% yield.