5,10,15-Triferrocenylcorrole Complexes

Complexes of 5,10,15-triferrocenylcorrole were synthesized from the crude free-base corrole product obtained by the reaction of ferrocenyl aldehyde and pyrrole. Direct formation of the complex in this manner leads to an increase of the reaction yield by protecting the corrole ring toward oxidative decomposition. The procedure was successful and gave the expected product in the case of the copper and triphenylphosphinecobalt complexes, but an unexpected result was obtained in the case of the nickel derivative, where metal insertion led to a ring opening of the macrocycle at the 5 position, giving as a final product a linear tetrapyrrole nickel complex bearing two ferrocenyl groups. The purified 5,10,15-triferrocenylcorrole complexes have been fully characterized by a combination of spectroscopic methods, electrochemistry, spectroelectrochemistry, and density functional theory calculations. Copper derivatives of 10-monoferrocenyl- and 5,15-diferrocenylcorrole were prepared to investigate how the number and position of the ferrocenyl groups influenced the spectroscopic and electrochemical properties of the resulting complexes. A complete assignment of resonances in the H-1 and C-13 NMR spectra was performed for the cobalt and nickel complexes, and detailed electrochemical characterization was carried out to provide additional insight into the degree of communication between the meso-ferrocenyl groups on the conjugated macrocycle and the central metal ion of the ferrocenylcorrole derivatives.