Synthesis and electrochemistry of tetrakis(7-coumarinthio-4-methyl)-phthalocyanines,and preparation of their cinnamic acid and sodium cinnamate derivatives

Novel water soluble free-base, Zn(II) and Co(II) metallo phthalocyanines with four cinnamic acid moieties were prepared from the corresponding tetrakis(7-coumarinthio-4-methyl)-phthalocyanine by the lactone ring opening reaction. The new compounds were purified and characterized by elemental analysis, ¹H NMR, Maldi-TOF, FT-IR and UV–Vis spectral data. Cyclic and differential pulse voltammetry and in situ spectroelectrochemistry of the 2,9,16,23-tetrakis(7-coumarinthio-4-methyl) substituted free-base 1a, Zn(II) 1b and Co(II) 1c phthalocyanines, employed as the starting compounds have been studied. This allowed us not only to identify metal- and phthalocyanine ring-based redox processes of the complexes, but also the effect of aggregation on these processes.