Efficient Access to Highly Condensed Aromatic Compounds Using Reactive Molecules

Reaction integration is one of the useful synthetic methods for preparation of highly condensed aromatic compounds with diverse functionalities. Above all, utilization of the highly reactive molecules in a cascade process is powerful and straightforward tool for the rapid assembly of polycycles, since selective activation of the starting material under suitable conditions leads to the selective generation of the reactive species, which enables us to precisely construct complex structures. In this chapter, organic synthetic reactions of reactive molecules are summarized based on recent progress of our synthetic approach to poly-functionalized aromatic compounds. In particular, we focus on the generation and reaction of functionalized isoacenofuran as a novel reactive platform to efficiently access structurally attractive π-extended molecules.