1,1-Difluoronaphthalen-2(1H)-ones as building blocks for fluorinated tetraphenes

[Display omitted] •1,1-difluoronaphthalen-2(1H)-ones suggested as synthons for tetraphene backbone construction.•Reductive aromatization methods for fluorinated tetraphene synthesis were developed.•HOMO-LUMO gaps of obtained tetraphene derivatives determined from UV–Vis spectra is similar to that of tetracene. 1,1-Difluoronaphthalen-2(1H)-ones were used as building blocks for synthesis of functionalized fluorinated tetraphenones via Diels-Alder reaction. Two effective methods of tetraphenone reductive aromatization were proposed. Fully aromatic stable fluorinated tetraphene derivative with high solubility and HOMO-LUMO gap of 3.08 eV was obtained.