Structural, Photophysical, and Electrochemical Properties of Doubly Fused Porphyrins and Related Fused Chlorins.

The electrochemical and physicochemical properties of tetraphenylporphyrins and tetraphenylchlorins with two fused indanedione (IND) or malononitrile (MN) groups and two antipodal Br, Ph, or H β-substituents are investigated in nonaqueous media. These compounds were synthesized by oxidative fusion of free-base trans-chlorins, followed by metalation. The corresponding free-base di-fused chlorins were also isolated as intermediates and characterized for comparisons. The examined di-fused porphyrins (DFP) and di-fused chlorins (DFC) are represented as MDFP(Y)2(R)2 and H2DFC(Y)2(R)2, where M = 2H, CuII, NiII, ZnII, and CoII, Y is a fused indanedione (IND) or malononitrile group (MN), and R = H, Br, or Ph. The IND- and MN-appended compounds in both series exhibit the expected two one-electron oxidations but quite different redox behavior is observed upon reduction, where the free-base IND-appended chlorins show four reversible one-electron reductions, compared to only two for the related free-base MN-appended chlorins. Although porphyrin trianions and tetraanions have been recently described for derivatives with highly electron-withdrawing and/or π-extending substituents, this seems not to be the case for the doubly fused IND-chlorins, where the first two one-electron additions are proposed to be located at the conjugated macrocycle and the last two at the fused IND groups, each of which is reduced at a different potential, consistent with the behavior expected for two equivalent and interacting redox centers. Unlike the examined chlorins, which are all stable in their electroreduced forms, the electrogenerated anionic forms of the di-fused porphyrins are all highly reactive and characterized by cyclic voltammograms having reduction peaks not only for the synthesized compounds added to solution but also for one or more new redox active species formed at the electrode surface in homogeneous chemical reactions following electron transfer. Comparisons are made between electrochemical behavior of the structurally related porphyrins and chlorins and the sites of electron transfer assigned on the basis of known electrochemical diagnostic criteria. One of the compounds, ZnDFP(MN)2, was also structurally characterized as having a ruffled and twisted macrocyclic conformation.