NOVELTY - Synthesizing a substituted fused tricyclic compounds (I), comprises: providing an optionally substituted precursor compound comprising a halo-heteroaryl ring having a halogen or hydrogen substituent at a first position on heteroaryl ring; treating the precursor compound with a strongly basic compound; treating the formed intermediate compound with an oxidizing agent; optionally treating the obtained bishalo-bis(heteroaryl) compound with an organometallic compound to form a bismetallo-bis(heteroaryl) compound; and reacting the bismetallo-bis(heteroaryl) compound with a suitable electrophile.    USE - The method is useful for synthesizing substituted fused tricyclic compounds (I), which are useful: in a composition of a semiconducting layer i.e. useful in a device (all claimed), which is electronic device (e.g. transistors, solar cells, LED, thin film transistor, FET, photodetectors and photovoltaics, organic LED, sensors, displays, flat panel displays, radio-frequency identification reader and electronic paper); to make various light absorbing materials that could have applications in the fields of sensing, nonlinear optics and optical limiting; as optical absorbing materials, nonlinear optical materials, sensing materials and optical limiting materials; and in artificial skin.    ADVANTAGE - The method: is short and inexpensive; and provides (I) that have fused tricyclic cores that are highly electron deficient.    DETAILED DESCRIPTION - Synthesizing a substituted fused tricyclic compound of formula (I), comprises: providing an optionally substituted precursor compound comprising a halo-heteroaryl ring having a halogen or hydrogen substituent at a first position on heteroaryl ring; treating the precursor compound with a strongly basic compound to induce the isomerization of the precursor compound to produce an intermediate compound, where the halogen or hydrogen atom is bound to a different position on the heteroaryl ring; treating the intermediate compound with an oxidizing agent so as to form a carbon-carbon bond between two intermediate compounds, thus forming bishalo-bis(heteroaryl) compound; optionally treating the bishalo-bis(heteroaryl) compound with an organometallic compound to exchange a metal for the halogen or hydrogen substituents, and form a bismetallo-bis(heteroaryl) compound; and reacting the bismetallo-bis(heteroaryl) compound with a suitable electrophile, or reacting the bishalo-bis(heteroaryl) compound or bismetallo-bis(heteroaryl) compound with a nucleophile, to introduce a Z1 group, or its precursor suitable for forming the fused tricyclic compound.    A1 = 5 or 6 membered heteroaryl; and    Z1 = C=C(CN)2 or (C=C(CN2))2.    INDEPENDENT CLAIMS are also included for:    (1) a composition (C1) comprising substituted 6,7-dihydro-1H-cyclopenta(a)pentalen-2-yl compounds (II) of formulae (IIa)-(IId);    (2) a composition (C2) comprising at least one tricyclic fused aromatic compound of formula (III) or (IV);    (3) (I) produced by the method; and    (4) a device comprising at least one FET comprising at least one organic semiconducting active layer which demonstrates a field-effect and comprises at least one of the compositions (C1)-(C3) or (I).    a, e = 0 or 1;    R1, R2 = alkyl, fluoroalkyl, aryl, fluoroaryl, heteroaryl, arylalkyl or heteroarylalkyl;    B1, B2 = at least one heteroarylenyl;    b, d = 0-4;    c = 1-4;    X2, X3 = O, S, Se, NR3, PR3 or Si(R3)2;    R3 = alkyl, heteroalkyl or alkylaryl;    Y2, Y3 = N, P, CH, CR4 or SiR4; and    R4 = H, alkyl, fluorinated alkyl, aryl, fluorinated aryl or heteroaryl.