Synthesis of aryl/alkyl building blocks for dendrimer and hyperbranched polymer synthesis.

Several useful aryl/alkyl building blocks for dendrimer and hyperbranched polymer synthesis were prepared by Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reactions and iododesilylation reactions. The iododesilylations were carried out with iodine monochloride (ICl) in methylene chloride and diethyl ether (10:1). This solvent combination lowered the reagents electrophilicity to the point that the iododesilylation still proceeded absolutely cleanly, but no direct iodination of alkyl-substituted aromatics occurred, which otherwise could not be avoided. [reaction: see text]