Exploration of giant functional porphyrin arrays

Abstract

Directly linked linear porphyrin arrays were synthesized and their photophysical properties depending on the length of the arrays were investigated. Ag(I)-promoted oxidative coupling of 5,15-diaryl Zn(II) porphyrins has proven to be effective for preparations of very long meso-meso-linked Zn(II) porphyrin arrays (Zn). A stepwise doubling strategy with strict purification at each doubling step allowed for preparation of gigantic but discrete linear arrays in an unprecedented manner. Large cyclic porphyrin wheels were also synthesized by final meso-meso coupling intramolecular cyclization. Crucial to this success are high reactivity and high regioselectivity of the Ag(I)-promoted oxidative coupling. Equally important are high solubilities of Zn despite their large molecular weights, which arise from their perpendicularly linked structures. Another advantage of this doubling strategy is a large difference in the molecular weights among reactants and products that increases as the reactant array becomes larger, allowing separation of coupling products by preparative GPC-HPLC. As an alternative protocol, Pd-catalyzed Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling has been extensively used for synthesis of cyclic porphyrin arrays. This strategy gave novel linear and cyclic porphyrin arrays from β-borylated porphyrins that were prepared by Ir-catalyzed borylation of meso-free porphyrins. As an interesting example, a porphyrin nanotube consisting of four porphyrins doubly bridged by 2,6-pyridinylene spacers was synthesized and revealed to possess a C60-encapsulation capability. Exciton coupling, effective energy hopping, coherent length, and excitation energy transfer of meso-meso-linked linear and cyclic porphyrin arrays are discussed. STM and AFM detections of the large porphyrin arrays are also presented. We believe that these studies expand the range of organic molecules we can manipulate and open a door to a new area of nanoscaled and sub-microscaled functional porphyrin materials.