5,6-Bis(trimethylsilyl)benzo[c]furan: a versatile building block for linear polycyclic aromatic compounds

Benzo[c]furans are a class of interesting compounds. Being very reactive, they readily undergo Diels–Alder cycloaddition with dienophiles to restore their aromaticity. For this reason, they can be utilized to construct six-membered ring compounds which are common building blocks of many natural and non-natural molecules. In connection with our use of silylated furans in the preparation of polysubstituted furans, we sought to extend our work to include silylated benzo[c]furans as well. Herein, we report the synthesis of the title molecule and its further manipulation for the preparation of several silylated linear polynuclear aromatic compounds.