Patent ID: 7605294

Claim:
A method for the preparation of a substituted fluorene comprising: (a) providing a 3,6-disubstituted fluorene characterized by the formula: wherein: R 1 and R 2 are C 1 -C 20 alkyl groups which may be the same or different; (b) reacting said 3,6-disubstituted fluorene group with a chloromethylating agent to produce a 2(7)-monochloromethylene-3,6-disubstituted fluorene characterized by the formula: or a 2,7-dichloromethylene-3,6-disubstituted fluorene characterized by the formula: or a 2,4,7-trichloromethylene-3,6-disubstituted fluorene characterized by the formula: wherein: R 1 and R 2 are as defined above; and (c) reacting said chloromethylene-3,6-disubstituted fluorene with a reducing agent to produce a 2(7)-monomethyl-3,6-disubstituted fluorene characterized by the formula: or a 2,7-dimethyl-3,6-disubstituted fluorene characterized by the formula: or a 2,4,7-trimethyl-3,6-disubstituted fluorene characterized by the formula: wherein: R 1 and R 2 are as defined above.