Preparation of chiral cholestanofluorene and its electron-rich derivatives for isolation of a stable cation-radical salt

A simple and practical synthesis of a variety of chiral fluorene derivatives is described where a cholestane moiety is attached to the carbon 9 of the fluorene ring system from readily available starting materials. An appropriately substituted fluorene derivative (i.e., R = OMe) forms a highly colored (chiral) cation-radical that can be isolated as robust hexachloroantimonate salt. Interestingly, the simplest cholestanofluorene (i.e., R = H) can also be transformed into a dibromo derivative (i.e., R = Br), a precursor to the (poly)cholestanofluorenes where the cholestane moieties will serve not only as groups that impart chirality but also allow them to be soluble in common organic solvents. The details of these works are described.