As a representative procedure, the synthetic route for 3a is illustrated in Scheme 2. In accordance with our previous report, 1-hydroxy-9-methoxydibenzo[j,l]fluoranthene (2b) was synthesised from the corresponding biaryl ketone 1b. After triflation of 2b, Pd-catalysed reduction of the resulted 5 in the presence of Et3SiH, followed by demethylation using BBr3, afforded 9-hydroxyfluoranthene 3a.