Nitration of Halterman porphyrin: a new route for fine tuning chiral iron and manganese porphyrins with application in epoxidation and hydroxylation reactions using hydrogen peroxide as oxidant

A methodology is reported for the regioselective nitration of the phenyl groups of Halterman porphyrin, using NaNO₂. These nitro-porphyrins can be reduced to aminoporphyrins and then N-dimethylated to give new optically active porphyrins. Applications to the asymmetric epoxidation of styrene derivatives by H₂O₂ to give optically active epoxides (ee up to 60%) and hydroxylation of alkanes to give optically active secondary alcohols (ee up to 69%) were carried out in organic solvents (dichloromethane/methanol) using chiral iron and manganese porphyrins as catalysts.