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Porphyrins with steric hindrance at the periphery are known to exhibit severely non-planar macrocycle conformations. Among other dodecasubstituted porphyrins, the title compound has been studied widely and shows a typical saddle-distorted macrocycle. The specific conformation of the porphyrin leads to the formation of distinct cavities on both sides of the macrocycle. Compared to planar porphyrins this should increase steric interactions between the macrocycle and axial ligands in five- and six-coordinated metal derivatives. In order to study the influence of different axial ligands on the conformation (or vice versa) a variety of five- and six-coordinated metal derivatives of 2,3,7,8,12,13,17,18-octaethyl-5,10,15,20-tetranitroporphyrin (oetnp) were prepared and their conformation investigated by X-ray crystallography. Structural data for Zn^II oetnp (L) where L is imidazole, 1-methylimidazole, 2-methylimidazole, 4-methylimidazole and 3,5-lutidine clearly indicated that a mutual influence exists between axial ligands and non-planar porphyrins. An asymmetric macrocycle distortion and axial ligand orientation was found in the sterically hindered 2- and 4-methylimidazole derivatives. The presence of four electron-withdrawing nitro-groups led to the formation of the novel polymeric porphyrins (Zn^IIoetnp)_n and (Co^IIoetnp)_n where polymer formation was achieved via the utilization of nitro oxygen atoms as axial ligands to the metal centre of neighbouring porphyrins. The structure of the six-coordinated Ni^IIoetnp(pyr)₂ (where pyr is pyridine) yielded first structural data on neutral, non-planar, high-spin Ni(II) porphyrins. A comparison with the respective low-spin Ni^IIoetnp clearly showed that a change to the high-spin form leads to a less non-planar macrocycle conformation further proving that spin state changes can have a profound effect on the conformation in distorted porphyrins.

The synthesis, reactivity and full characterization of a series of meso-tetraalkyl porphyrins and metalloporphyrins with R ≡ n-butyl (6), 2-methyl-propyl (7), isopropyl (8), l-ethyl-propyl (10) and tert-butyl (11) groups are reported. Derivatives of the last of these show considerably bathochromically shifted absorption bands and the crystal structure of Zn(II)11(pyr) exhibits a severely ruffled macrocycle conformation. Systematic crystallographic studies of the porphyrins showed that the free base porphyrins with R ≡ n-butyl (H₂6), 2-methyl-propyl (H₂7) and 1-ethyl-propyl (H₂10) are planar. A larger conformational variety was found for the metal complexes. While most Ni(II) derivatives and Pd(II)₈ showed a ruffled macrocycle conformation with a degree of ruffling exceeding that of meso-unsubstituted porphyrins, both planar and non-planar forms were found for the related Cu(II) derivatives. The Zn(II) complexes of porphyrins with isopropyl or 1-ethyl-propyl exhibited conformations with variable degree of distortion. Together with comparative structures from the literature, this study provides experimental evidence that considerable conformational flexibility exists for meso-alkylporphyrins with substituents less bulky than tert-butyl groups.

The crystal structure of the triflate salt of the title compound, [Me₃TPP][CF₃SO₃], was investigated to obtain structural information on the conformation of N-trimethylated 5,10,15,20-tetraarylporphyrins. The molecular stereochemistry of the cation is characterized by an up/down/up arrangement for the three N-methyl groups with significant pyramidalization at the nitrogen atoms. The macrocycle is severely distorted with an average deviation from planarity of 0.438 Å. The distortion mode is an asymmetric saddle with deviations from the 4N plane of the C_b atoms at N-methylated pyrrole rings exceeding 1.1 Å. The out-of-plane displacements of pyrrole ring IV are significantly smaller than those of the methylated pyrrole rings.

Chromyl(V) complexes of eleven different meso-aryl- and $\beta$-alkylcorrole ligands have been prepared and characterized by analytical, spectroscopical, electrochemical and structural means. All seven new complexes show the expected optical spectra of chromyl(V) corroles with the Soret band situated slightly above (meso-arylcorroles) or below ($\beta$-alkylcorrole) 400 nm, and with an isotropic room temperature EPR signal for the $d^1$ ion Cr(V) at about $g_{\mathrm{\text{iso}}}=1.985$. Cyclic voltammetry evidences two or three quasi-reversible one-electron redox steps, which are characterized as two ligand-centered processes and one metal-centered process based on spectroelectrochemical measurements and a Hammett analysis. Chemical reduction to a chromyl(IV) corrolate was successfully performed using NaHg and NEt₃. Citric acid, however, produces a different reduction product, for which an isocorrole structure is proposed. Six chromyl(V) corroles could be analysed by seven single crystal diffraction analyses. The obtained molecular data prove the presence of remarkably similar CrN₄O coordination units independent of the corrole substitution pattern, and of macrocyclic conformations which can be understood as comprised mainly of a doming mode, a more or less pronounced saddling mode, and one out of two different and dominating ruffling modes.

The possibility of four NH-tautomers formation in asymmetrically substituted 5,10-diaryl-corrole free bases has been studied. The molecular conformation optimization has been carried out for four NH-tautomers in both the ground singlet S₀ and the lowest excited triplet T₁ states with the density functional theory, and the sets of integral and local structure parameters have been evaluated. The results unambiguously demonstrate that each of the four NH-tautomers has its unique molecular conformation. However, the ground state energies of the NH-tautomers were found to differ strongly as a function of the rotation degree of freedom of aryl substituents. Almost the same ground state energies of all NH-tautomers have been found for the substitution with sterically constrained mesityl groups. In contrast, a large energy gap has been revealed between two pairs of NH-tautomers in case of substitution with freely rotating phenyl groups. Therefore, in the former case, the relative populations of all four NH-tautomers are of the same order of magnitude and all four NH-tautomers coexist, but only two NH-tautomers are expected in the latter at room temperatures. The aromaticity degree and the $\pi$-conjugation pathways have been evaluated for each of four NH-tautomers in both ground S₀ and lowest excited triplet T₁ states, and similar behavior was found for the pairs of NH-tautomers those protons are localized either in the dipyrromethene fragment or in the dipyrrole fragment of the macrocycle. All NH-tautomers were found to be aromatic in the ground state, but the inversion of aromaticity takes place in the lowest triplet T₁ state for all of them. Finally, the energies of the four frontier molecular orbitals have been compared and analyzed in the framework of possible spectral differences between the NH-tautomers.