A synthetic methodology is developed to generate boron rich aromatic small molecules based on benzene and pyrene moieties for the detection of thermal neutrons. The prepared aromatic compounds have a relatively high boron content up to 7.4 wt%, which is important for application in neutron detection as 10B (20% of natural abundance boron) has a large neutron induced reaction cross-section. This is demonstrated by preparing blends of the synthesized molecules with fluorescent dopants in poly(vinyltoluene) matrices resulting in comparable scintillation light output and neutron capture as state-of-the art commercial scintillators, but with the advantage of much lower cost. The boron-rich benzene and pyrene derivatives are prepared by Suzuki conditions using both microwave and traditional heating, affording yields of 40–93%. This new procedure is simple and straightforward, and has the potential to be scaled up.
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