The Roberts Group is developing stategies that enable access to polycyclic aromatic molecules with applications in catalysis, materials (optical and electronic), and natural product synthesis. Over the last five years, they have developed chemical methods that enable synthetic access to polycyclic aromatic molecules with increasing numbers of rings. Toward systems with three rings, they developed a build-cyclize-contract strategy to permit the chemical assembly of three-ring aromatic molecules that derive from commercially available aromatic (one-ring) building blocks. In other words, two commercial aromatic rings are chemically joined in a three-step process while simultaneously building the third (fused) ring (read more: An amine template strategy to construct successive C–C bonds: synthesis of benzo[h]quinolines by a deaminative ring contraction cascade and Deaminative ring contraction for the synthesis of polycyclic heteroaromatics: a concise total synthesis of toddaquinoline). Recently, they advanced the build-cyclize-contract strategy to acess non-planar, polycyclic aromatic molecules called [n]helicenes, where n represents the integer number of rings greater than three in a given molecule. Certain [n]helicenes are valued for their remarkable chiroptical properties—the way in which chiral (non-symmetric) molecules respond to light. In their work entitled, “Deaminative ring contraction for the modular synthesis of pyrido[n]helicenes,” published in the ACS Journal, Organic Letters, they show the utility of the build-cyclize contract strategy for the scalable synthesis of pyrido[5]helicenes and pyrido[6]helicenes. This work was recognized as ACS Editors’ choice and is accompanied by cover artwork.

May 2026