The increasing interest in semiconducting organic molecules' for electronic applications has prompted us to examine the palladium-catalyzed arylation of alkenes as a new method for preparing possibly semiconducting aryl polyenes. We have previously reported the mono-2 and diarylation3 of isoprene with iodo- or bromobenzene, tri- ethylamine, and a palladium acetate-tri-o-tolylphosphine catalyst. The yield of diarylated product was only 22% ... Pd(OAci2. P(o-tol13 I 2 5 'C, 3doys