Palladium-catalyzed intramolecular aerobic oxidative cross-coupling of BH/CH between o-carborane and arenes

An efficient Pd-catalyzed regioselective intramolecular aerobic oxidative dehydrocoupling of BH/CH between o-carborane and arenes has been achieved with the construction of a series of five-, six- and seven-membered rings under mild reaction conditions. Control experiments indicate that B–H activation proceeds preferentially over the aryl C–H. These new polyarene–carborane conjugates have potential applications in materials as demonstrated by pyrene fused o-carborane that exhibits unique dual-phase emission, intramolecular charge transfer (ICT), and aggregation-induced emission (AIE) properties.