16 ml of an n-butyllithium solution (40 mmol, 16 ml, 2.5 M in hexane) were added dropwise to a solution of 6.64 g (40 mmol) of fluorene in 80 ml of diethyl ether at room temperature and the reaction mixture was stirred for another hour. A solution of 4.8 g (38 mmol) of 1,2-epoxy-7-octene in 20 ml of diethyl ether was then slowly added thereto. After the reaction mixture had been stirred for another hour, 7.6 g (40 mmol) of p-toluenesulfonyl chloride was slowly added as a solid. Separately from this first reaction mixture, a solution of a mixture of 7.4 g (40 mmol) of 2-methyl-3H-cyclopenta[b][1]benzothiophene/2-methyl-1H-cyclopenta[b][1]benzothiophene in 70 ml of diethyl ether was admixed with 16 ml of an n-butyllithium solution (40 mmol, 16 ml, 2.5 M in hexane) and the mixture was stirred for another hour. The second reaction mixture was added dropwise to the first reaction mixture comprising 2-(9H-fluoren-9-yl)oct-7-enyl p-toluenesulfonate, the resulting mixture was stirred for 18 hours and subsequently subjected to an aqueous work-up. After phase separation, the organic phase was washed with water, dried over magnesium sulfate and the solvent was removed under reduced pressure. This gave 17.6 g of a deep orange oil which was chromatographed on silica gel (dichloromethane/hexane 1:9). This gave 3.07 g of (1a) (yield 17.5%) as a viscous yellow oil.
