Synthesis and the effect of anions on the spectroscopy and electrochemistry of mono(dimethyl sulfoxide)-ligated cobalt corroles

A new series of cobalt A3-triarylcorroles were synthesized and the compounds examined as to their electrochemical and spectroscopic properties in CH2Cl2 or dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) containing 10 different anions added to the solution in the form of tetrabutylammonium salts. The investigated anions were PF6 -, BF4 -, HSO4 -, ClO4 -, Br-, I-, Cl-, OAc-, F-, OTs-, and CN-, all but three of which were found to facilitate reduction of the cobalt corrole in dilute CH2Cl2 solutions, as determined by a combination of UV-vis spectroscopy and spectroelectrochemistry. The synthesized corroles are represented as (Ar)3CorCo(DMSO), where Ar is a meso-phenyl group containing one of 10 different electron-donating or-withdrawing substituents. The axial DMSO ligand was found to dissociate in dilute (10-5 M) CH2Cl2 solutions, but this was not the case at the higher electrochemical concentration of 10-3 M, where the investigated corroles exhibit a rich redox reactivity, undergoing up to five reversible one-electron-transfer reactions under the different solution conditions. The reversible half-wave potentials for generation of the singly oxidized corroles varied by over 1.0 V with a change in the electron-donating or-withdrawing meso-phenyl substituents and type of anion added to the solution, ranging from E1/2 = 0.83 V in one extreme to-0.42 V in the other. Much smaller shifts in the potentials (on the order of 210 mV) were observed for the reversible first reduction as a function of changes of the anion and/or corrole substituents, with the only exception being in the case of CN-, where the E1/2 values in CH2Cl2 ranged from +0.08 V in solutions containing 0.1 M TBAClO4 to >-1.8 V upon the addition of CN-