In order to probe the possible mechanism of the rearrangement of trans-hexaphenyldifluorotricyclooctadiene (a dimer of fluorotriphenylcyclobutadiene) to pentaphenyldihydrodifluoropentalene via C-F bond migration, a high-temperature study of the title compound, C_(44)H_(30)F_2, was performed at 400 (2) K. In the title compound, there are three fused four-membered rings with the resulting eight-membered tricyclo¬octa¬diene ring adopting a sofa conformation. The dihedral angles between the central four-membered ring and the two outer rings are 66.03 (2) and 65.39 (2)°. The crystal structure contains centrosymmetric dimers formed by C-H… π inter¬actions
