Controlled Nitration of Solvent Green 5 as a Platform for Functional Perylene Derivatives

Organic dyes are central to functional materials, yet some widely used industrial chromophores remain synthetically underexplored. Solvent Green 5 (3,9-diisobutyl perylenedicarboxylate) is a long-established dye whose chemical reactivity has remained surprisingly underdeveloped. Herein, we report a highly selective nitration strategy, enabling access to unprecedented mono-, di-, tri-, and tetranitro derivatives of Solvent Green 5 (SG5) in a high yield and on a gram scale. These nitro derivatives serve as versatile synthetic platforms for further functionalizations, drawing on strategies developed in perylenediimide chemistry and establishing SG5 as a valuable scaffold for functional materials.