Towards the design of tricyclopenta [def, jkl, pqr] triphenylene (‘sumanene’): a ‘bowl-shaped’ hydrocarbon featuring a structural motif present in C60(buckminsterfullerene)

Abstract
A short synthesis of C3 symmetry 1,5,9-trimethyltriphenylene 3a and its further elaboration to methyl dicyclopenta [def, jkl] triphenylene is reported.