Studies on iron(III) and manganese(III) derivatives of new meso-aryl substituted and brominated porphyrins

A series of Fe^III and Mn^III porphyrins with various tolyl and naphthyl substituents at the meso positions, and their perbromoderivatives with Br substituents at the -pyrrole positions, have been synthesised and investigated. As seen in the case of the free-base porphyrins, both Fe^III and Mn^III derivatives of the Br-substituted porphyrins also exhibit pronounced red-shifts in both B and Q bands compared to their nonbrominated analogues. This is attributed to the electron-withdrawing ability of eight Br substituents at -pyrrole positions and is also due to distortion brought about in the -framework by the bulky substituents including those at the meso positions. The naphthyl groups seem to be making mesomeric contributions for both nonbrominated and brominated porphyrins of these metal ions as is evident from the higher wavelength absorption of the B band as compared to the tolyl derivatives. While the meso-substituent do not exhibit any isomer dependent change on the electronic properties of Fe^III porphyrins, they show a noticeable effect in the Mn^III derivatives. During the metallation of meso-tetratolylporphyrins by Fe^III ions -oxo dimeric compounds are formed, while the naphthyl porphyrins and the bromoderivatives do not form such dimeric species. The presence of bulky groups at the meso positions and heavy bromines on the -pyrrole positions can be considered to prevent the formation of catalytically inert -oxo dimers.