Porphyrin synthesis in water provides new expanded porphyrins with direct bipyrrole linkages: isolation and characterization of two heptaphyrins.

The use of water for the porphyrin cyclization changes the products completely. Scandium-catalyzed aqueous condensation between pentafluorobenzaldehyde and pyrrole and subsequent oxidation provides novel expanded porphyrins with direct bipyrrole linkages, of which two novel heptaphyrins have been characterized by X-ray analyses.