Optically active ethylenedioxy-S,S-dimethylethylenedithiotetrathiafulvalene (EDO-S,S-DMEDT-TTF: 1) has been synthesized in satisfactory yield using a triethyl phosphite-mediated cross-coupling of (5S,6S)-5,6-dimethyl-1,3-dithiolane-2-one 4 with unsubstituted 1,3-dithiolane-2-thione 6.Organic low-dimensional conductors have attracted the keen interest of both physicists and chemists for more than twenty years because of their electronic properties extending from insulators, semiconductors to metals and superconductivity. They take the form of crystalline solids and are comprised of organic donors (cation radicals) and either organic or inorganic anions. The donors of most of these are based on an extended tetrathiafulvalene (TTF) analog. 1 Namely, quasi-one-dimensional conductors are mainly associated with TTF or their derivatives of tetramethyltetraselenafulvalene (TMTSF), and quasi-two-dimensional with bis(ethylenedithio)tetrathiafulvalene (BEDT-TTF). Both of these donors have C 2 and C s symmetry (symmetrical donors). In addition to these donors, C s symmetrical donors (unsymmetrical donor) represented by enantiomers of ethylenedioxydimethylethylenedithiotetrathiafulvalene (EDO-DMEDT-TTF (1)), a constituent of the t-type crystals which exhibit a two-dimensional metallic behavior and novel magnetic and electronic properties at low temperature, 2-4 have recently been developed. 5 Since the supply of these donors in sufficient quantities is an important subject to extend further physics studies, a number of synthetic works have been explored. The syntheses of both symmetrical and unsymmetrical donors have been performed by a one-pot triethyl phosphite-mediated coupling of 1,3-dithiolane-2-one. 6 Contrary to self-coupling providing symmetrical donors, preparation of the unsymmetrical donors requires crosscoupling between different coupling partners which inevitably incurs synthetic difficulty due to concomitant formation of symmetrical donors resulting in a decrease in the yield of the ultimate donors (vide infra). 7 In this report, we describe an efficient preparation of an unsymmetrical donor, EDO-S,S-DMEDT-TTF (1). 5,8 The reported work describes the conducting and superconducting salts based on the unsymmetrical donor 1 without detailing the complete synthetic procedure and its spectroscopic data. 8 The synthesis was performed by the coupling of (5S,6S)-5,6-dimethyl-1,3-dithiolane-2-one 4 7 with unsubstituted 1,3-dithiolane-2-one 5 8,9 using triethyl phosphite. The estimated yield of 1 was ~20%, suggesting that undesired self-coupling reactions producing symmetrical donors 2 and 3 exceeded the desired cross-coupling. We carefully examined the coupling of 4 with 1 equiv of 5, and confirmed the formation of a mixture of cross-coupling product 1 and self-coupled 2 10 and 3 11 (Scheme 1). The ratio of the products (symmetrical donors 2 and 3: unsymmetrical donor 1 = 4:1) was not identical with the theoretical ratio (Table). Despite the use of 2 equiv of 5, the yield of the desired 1 was only 12.4% and the self-coup...