Preparation, mass spectrometry and electrochemical studies of metal connected porphyrin oligomers

Abstract

Oligomers built from metal ions and porphyrins bearing enaminoketones at the ring periphery were prepared. These dimers or trimers, where all porphyrinic rings are coplanar, show large interactions in the ground state between the individual porphyrin cores, as shown by their optical properties and electrochemical studies. In particular, a spectacular decrease of the HOMO-LUMO gap (with values as low as 1.32 eV) was observed for monomeric porphyrins metalated on the external sites. Along with standard analytical methods, APPI (Atmospheric Pressure PhotoIonization) mass spectrometry was found to be a very powerful tool to characterize these metal connected porphyrin oligomers.