Synthesis of sulfur-bridged polycycles via Pd-catalyzed dehydrogenative cyclization.

A general approach to sulfur-bridged polycycles by palladium-catalyzed double C(sp(2))-H bond oxidative cyclization is presented. This protocol afforded diverse sulfur-bridged five-, six-, and seven-membered polycycles in moderate to good yields with a tolerance for a wide variety of functional groups. A sulfide-bridged six-membered pyrene-thienoacene compound was synthesized readily using this method, and excellent performance for photoluminescence quantum yield was observed.