Molecular structure of a gold β-octakis(trifluoromethyl)-meso-triarylcorrole: an 85° difference in saddling dihedral relative to copper

Copper corroles exhibit inherent saddling, driven by ligand non-innocence, which may be viewed as a form of multideterminantal character. The saddling is enhanced by sterically hindered peripheral substituents. The sterically hindered complex Cu[(CF3)(8)T(pFP)C] (wherein the ligand is beta-octakis(trifluoromethyl)-meso-tris(p-fluorophenyl) corrolato) is thus exceedingly saddled with adjacent pyrrole rings nearly orthogonal to one another. By contrast, Au[(CF3)(8)T(pFP)C] has a nearly planar corrole macrocycle, implying an innocent corrole ligand.