Polycyclic aromatic compounds are an important class of materials that includes fullerenes and carbon nanotubes and exhibit interesting biological, chemical, photo- physical and structural properties. New PAH synthetic procedures include flash vacuum pyrolysis, inter- and intramolecular metal-catalyzed cross coupling reactions such as Suzuki coupling, alkylation of activated forms of carbonyl compounds such as enamines and silyl enol ethers, and cyclotrimerization of arynes and acetylenes. Recently in our group we reported autocatalytic alkyne cycloadditions: Evidence for colloidal Pt catalysis ¹. To expand this work we have synthesized compounds with a 1,1^'-binaphthyl and 2, 2^'-biphenyl ligands. Herein, we describe the synthesis and characterization of Ni, Pt and Pd 1,1^'-biphenyl-binaphthyl and 2, 2^'-biphenyl complexes, which was obtained by the reaction of [(1,1^'-biphenyl-binaphthyl)Li₂] and [(2,2^'-biphenyl)Li₂ with ML₂Cl₂ (L= PEt₃; M=Ni, Pd and Pt) respectively. Kinetic study of the reaction of (1) with diphenylacetylene is currently under investigation and will also be described.

1. Begum, R. A.; Chanda, N.; Ramakrishna, T. V. V.; Sharp, P. R. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2005, 127(39), 13494-13495.