Bridging the gap between porphyrins and porphycenes: substituent-position-sensitive tautomerism and photophysics in meso-diphenyloctaethylporphyrins

2,3,7,8,12,13,17,18‐Octaethyl‐5,15‐diphenylporphyrin ( 1 ) is characterized by an inner cavity with a rectangular shape and small NH???N distances. It resembles porphycene, which is a constitutional isomer of porphyrin known for its strong intramolecular hydrogen bonds and rapid tautomerization. Such distortion of the porphyrin cavity leads to tautomeric properties of 1 that are intermediate between those of porphyrin and porphycene. In particular, a tautomerization in the lowest excited singlet state of 1 has been discovered, occurring with a rate three orders of magnitude lower than that in porphycene, but three to four orders of magnitude higher than that in porphyrin. An isomer of 1 , 2,3,7,8,12,13,17,18‐octaethyl‐5,10‐diphenylporphyrin ( 2 ), exhibits a different kind of geometry distortion. This molecule is nonplanar, but the inner cavity shape and dimensions are similar to those of the parent porphyrin. The same hydrogen‐bonding strength as that in porphyrin is observed for 2 . In contrast, the nonplanarity of 2 significantly influences the photophysics, leading to a decrease in fluorescence quantum yield and lifetime. Absorption, magnetic circular dichroism, and fluorescence spectra are similar for 1 and 2 and resemble those of parent porphyrin. This is a consequence of comparable energy splittings of the frontier orbitals, ΔHOMO≈ΔLUMO. The results demonstrate that judicious selection of substituents and their position enables a controlled modification of geometry, hydrogen‐bonding strength, tautomerization rate, and photophysical and spectral parameters of porphyrinoids.