Novel butterfly-shaped, highly fluorescent stable monomers of the type 7-tert-butyl-1,3,5,9-tetrakisarylpyrene were synthesized by the Suzuki-Miyaura coupling reaction of the new bromopyrene derivative 7-tert-butyl-1,3, 5,9-tetrabromopyrene with the corresponding arylboronic acids.

An efficient synthetic approach for functionalization of both the active sites (1,3-) and the K-region (4,5,9,10-) of pyrene was accomplished by bromination and oxidation with considerable yield. These novel pyrene-fused azaacenes were thoroughly investigated by X-ray diffraction studies, electrochemistry, and DFT calculations.