The never-ending pursuits for exploring aromatic molecular architectures result in the large libraries of aromatics with fascinating structures, which have greatly broadened the scope of aromaticity. Despite extensive efforts that have been paid to develop aromatic frameworks, the construction of polycyclic aromatics that share a bridgehead atom with more than three rings has never been accomplished. Here, an unprecedented family of aromatics, in which a metal center shared by 4 five-membered aromatic rings, has been achieved by using the metalla-click reactions with excellent yields and remarkable regioselectivity. The distinctive tetracyclic aromatics exhibit a broad absorption in the ultraviolet-visible near-infrared region and excellent thermal stability in air, enabling their potential applications in photoelectric materials and biomedicine. This study now makes it possible to incorporate four aromatic rings with one common sharing metal center by a straightforward strategy that would promote further development of previously unknown polycyclic complex motifs in aromatic chemistry.

https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/3/eaay2535