Remarkable isolation, structural characterisation and electrochemistry of unexpected scrambling analogues of 5-ferrocenyl-10,20-diphenylporphyrin

Selective condensation of 5-ferrocenyldipyrromethane, 1, and dipyrromethane, 2, with benzaldehyde, 3, led to 5-ferrocenyl-10,20- diphenylporphyrin, 5. During the condensation, an unusually large amount of scrambling was observed which led to the isolation of two further ferrocenylated porphyrin analogues 6 and 7. The structure of 6 was confirmed by a single-crystal X-ray study. A mechanism is proposed for this atypical scrambling which is likely to involve acid-catalysed reversion of the dipyrromethane synthesis. ¹H NMR further elucidated the structures of each complex and showed the existence of atropisomerism. An electrochemical study (cyclic voltammetry, Osteryoung square wave and linear sweep voltammetry) showed that there exists a linear relationship between the sum of the group electronegativities of meso substituents of the obtained porphyrins and the formal reduction potentials of the two observed ring-centred reduction processes, the meso substituent ferrocenyl-based oxidation process and the first ring-centred oxidation wave. These four relationships could be mathematically quantified. Due to the strong electron-withdrawing properties of the oxidised ferrocenium group, the second ring centred oxidation wave fell outside the potential window of dichloromethane as solvent.