The highly substituted mono‐aryl/alkylthio‐(hetero)acenes prepared in this study have been found to be thermally more stable (Tdecomp.=331–354 °C) than the known di‐aryl/alkylthio‐substituted acenes by an average of 25 °C. They are also much more photostable at 254 and 365 nm (in both argon and air) than the parent anthracene and other reported anthracenes. The most photostable aryl/alkylthio‐anthracenes at 254 nm were found to be 60–70 (in air) and 130 (in argon) times more stable in solution than the unsubstituted anthracene, and much more stable than known EDG/EWG‐substituted anthracenes (EDG=electron‐donating group, EWG=electron‐withdrawing group) with an extended aromatic core. Furthermore, the acenes showed significantly higher photostability at 365 nm in both air and argon. The anthracenes were obtained by the novel thio‐Friedel–Crafts/Bradsher cyclization reaction of hitherto unknown [o‐(1,3‐dithian‐2‐yl)aryl](aryl)methyl thioethers. The developed approach provides a general access to mono‐aryl/alkylthio‐substituted (hetero)acene frameworks containing at least three fused (hetero)aromatic rings. The characteristic feature of this approach, which leads to highly substituted acenes, is that the substituents, unlike in other methods, may be introduced at an early stage of the synthesis. DFT and TD‐DFT calculations confirmed the stabilizing role of the aryl/alkylthio substituent in the mono‐aryl/alkylthio‐substituted anthracenes, which are the most stable anthracenes prepared to date. Their high photostability is mainly due to the quenching of singlet oxygen by the acene and the quenching of the acene S1 state by molecular oxygen.

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This work presents an efficient synthesis of bis(dibromomethyl)benzenes and a bis(dibromomethyl)thiophene as precursors of aromatic dialdehydes by bromination of dimethyl-substituted arenes under various reaction conditions (yields up to 99%). Several new variants of this reaction, including the use of N-bromosuccinimide (NBS) and bromine, and various solvents to replace carbon tetrachloride, benzene and carbon disulfide, were also tested. In the optimised protocols, the inconvenient solvents were replaced by 1,2-dichloroethane (DCE) and/or acetonitrile. In the DCE protocols, we reduced reaction times 24-32-fold, reduced the amount of NBS a fewfold and lowered power consumption relative to the literature protocols. The procedures also allowed elimination of long-lasting incandescent irradiation (100-500 W). The replacement of NBS by bromine led to a further reduction in the amount of brominating agent. The obtained bromo derivatives were efficiently converted into the corresponding dialdehydes (90-96%), which in turn are useful in materials chemistry.