The general procedure for the synthesis of 2,3,6,7,10,11-hexamethoxytriphenylene from 2,3,6,7,10,11-hexahydroxytriphenylene was carried out as follows: the preparation of compound 4 was carried out with reference to the method described in literature [14]. Hexamethoxytriphenylene (7 g, 17.14 mmol) was dissolved in dichloromethane (50 ml) and the resulting solution was cooled in an ice bath. Subsequently, boron tribromide solution (11.47 ml) was slowly added dropwise to the reaction mixture over a period of 30 min. After completion of the dropwise addition, the reaction mixture was stirred at room temperature overnight. After completion of the reaction, the mixture was slowly poured into crushed ice (100 g) and stirred vigorously until the ice was completely melted. Next, multiple extractions were carried out with ethyl acetate (6 x 150 ml), the organic phases were combined and dried over anhydrous sodium sulfate, and finally concentrated to dryness under reduced pressure to give a dark purple solid product. The yield of this step was nearly quantitative and the resulting compound could be used in subsequent reactions without further purification.
