N-confused porphyrins as new scaffolds for suprarnolecular architecture

The peripheral nitrogen of N-confused porphyrins (NCP) can serve as a hydrogen bonding donor and acceptor, and a metal coordination site as well. NCP forms versatile dimers with the assistance of metal ions such as Pd-II, Pt-II, Zn-II, Cd-II, Hg-II, Mn-II and Fe-II. The square-planar divalent metal complexes of C6F5-substituted NCP with Cu-II, Ni-II and Pd-II act as efficient anion binding receptors. The doubly N-confused porphyrins (N2CP), possessing both N and NH at the periphery, form self-assembled 1-D hydrogen bonding networks, whose orientations differ in cis (zigzag) and trans (straight) isomers. Copyright (c) 2004 Society of Porphyrins & Phthalocyanines.