π-Extended Polyaromatic Hydrocarbons by Sustainable Alkyne Annulations through Double C−H/N−H Activation

The widespread applications of substituted diketopyrrolopyrroles (DPPs) call for the development of efficient methods for their modular assembly. Herein, we present a π-expansion strategy for polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) by C−H activation in a sustainable fashion. Thus, twofold C−H/N-H activations were accomplished by versatile ruthenium(II)carboxylate catalysis, providing step-economical access to diversely decorated fluorogenic DPPs that was merged with late-stage palladium-catalyzed C−H arylation on the thus-assembled DPP motif.