Tuning Chemical and Physical Properties of Phosphorus Corroles for Advanced Applications.

Although the affinity of metallocorroles to axial ligands is quite low, this is not the case when the chelated element is phosphorus. This work is hence focused on the mechanism of ligand exchange of six-coordinate phosphorus corroles as a tool for affecting their chemical and physical properties. These fundamental investigations allowed for the development of facile methodologies for the synthesis of a large series of complexes and the establishment of several new structure/activity profiles that may be used to understand and predict spectroscopic features and for tailor-made modification of photophysical and electrochemical properties. This is exemplified by the facile access to complexes with terminal groups that are of large potential for practical applications based on click chemistry, optical imaging, and surface science.

Rhodium Complexes of a New-Generation Sapphyrin: Unique Structures, Axial Chirality, and Catalysis.

Rhodium insertion into the new 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(trifluoromethyl)sapphyrin was found to be much more facile than for other analogues, owing to NH⋅⋅⋅F hydrogen-bonding interactions that stabilise the pyrrole-inverted structure characteristic of the metallated product. The thus-obtained rhodium(I) complexes have axial chirality, and the enantiomers were resolved. The latter were found to interconvert quite rapidly in a process that involves a tautomerisation-like movement of the metal fragment between the five N atoms. The rhodium sapphyrins were investigated as catalysts for organic synthesis, by studying their carbene-transfer activity in the cyclopropanation of styrene with ethyl diazoacetate and comparing it to that of rhodium corroles.