(Benz)imidazo[1,2‐a]quinolinium Salts: Access via Unprecedented Regiospecific non‐AAIPEX Strategy and Study of Their Tunable Properties

Abstract An unprecedented non‐AAIPEX protocol has been developed to access diverse monosubstituted cationic polycyclic heteroaromatic compounds (cPHACs) from the readily available azolium salts and phenacyl bromides via Ru(II)‐catalyzed tandem annulation cum aromatization. This atom‐economic protocol executes a range of intermediate steps e. g. double C−H activation, nucleophilic addition, annulation, and dehydration cum aromatization in one‐pot manner under the generation of H 2 O as the sole byproduct. Moreover, the systematic tunability of photo‐physical and electrochemical properties of these new class of cPHACs can be authenticated from the DFT calculated frontier molecular orbital energies that might be beneficial for their potential applications in optoelectronics and DNA intercalation.