Crystal structure of 2,3-dimethoxy-meso-tetrakis(pentafluorophenyl)morpholinochlorin methylene chloride 0.44-solvate

Abstract

The title morpholinochlorin, C46H16F20N4O3, was crystallized from hexane/methylene chloride as its 0.44 methylene chloride solvate, C46H16F20N4O3·0.44CH2Cl2. The morpholinochlorin was synthesized by stepwise oxygen insertion into a porphyrin using a `breaking and mending strategy': NaIO4-induced diol cleavage of the corresponding 2,3-dihydroxychlorin with in situ methanol-induced, acid-catalyzed intramolecular ring closure of the intermediate secochlorins bisaldehyde. Formally, one of the pyrrolic building blocks was thus replaced by a 2,3-dimethoxymorpholine moiety. Like other morpholinochlorins, the macrocycle of the title compound adopts a ruffled conformation, and the modulation of the porphyrinic π-system chromophore induces a red-shift of its optical spectrum compared to its corresponding chlorin analog. Packing in the crystal is governed by interactions involving the fluorine atoms of the pentafluorophenyl substituents, dominated by C—H...F interactions, and augmented by short fluorine...fluorine contacts, C—F...π interactions, and one severely slipped π-stacking interaction between two pentafluorophenyl rings. The solvate methylene chloride molecule is disordered over two independent positions around an inversion center with occupancies of two × 0.241 (5) and two × 0.199 (4), for a total site occupancy of 88%.