Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are the structural basis of organic semiconductor materials. As the isomer of pyrene, acepleiadylene (APD) also shows narrow optical gap and obvious dipole characteristics, and has a larger π-conjugated plane than azulene, which has attracted great interest of chemists.

Recently, Professor Xiaoye Wang’s group developed an efficient method for the synthesis of APD, which realized the gram level preparation of APD through a simple two-step reaction, laying a foundation for the subsequent study of the chemical and physical properties of APD. This work is expected to bring APD chemistry back to life, and plays an important role in the design and synthesis of novel polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, π-conjugated polymers and graphene nanobelts materials, which opens up new opportunities for their applications in the fields of optoelectronics and energy. This work was recently published in J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2021, (DOI: 10.1021/jacs.1c01826).