Synthesis and structure of 2-substituted pyrene-derived scaffolds

•We report the optimised synthesis of key 2-functionalized pyrene building blocks.•The compounds may be used as tags in the preparation of fluorescent probes.•Crystal structures of tetrahydropyrene and 2-acetyl-tetrahydropyrene are disclosed.•We report the crystal structure of ethyl tetrahydro-2-pyrene-5-oxopentanoate (ETPO).•ETPO is a key block for access to ester- or amide-bridged fluorescent probes.