Sugar building-block as a fine-tunable link for electron-donor - electron-acceptor couples

Synthesis and spectral property study of porphyrin-anthraquinone dyads bonded through azo

To determine if the dihedral angle between the phenyl group and the porphyrin ring in the meso-phenyl porphyrin (H2TPP) could be adjusted by selective substitution of the naphthyl group for phenyl groups, novel dyads with a free-base porphyrin donor and anthraquinone acceptor linked by a rigid azo bond were synthesized and their spectral properties were investigated in detail. The Soret absorption band of dyads with meso-naphthyl groups in porphyrin shows 5–7 nm red shift as compared to the corresponding raw materials due to the introduction of the anthraquinone moiety. Fluorescence from the porphyrin moiety was found to be intensely quenched with the addition of anthraquinone moiety in the dyads; the highest quenching rate was observed to be 95% in the dyad prepared by meso-tetranaphthyl porphyrin. This indicates that the efficiency of the intramolecular photoinduced electron transfer in porphyrin-anthraquinone dyads could be changed by substituting the meso-phenyl group in porphyrin for the meso-naphthyl group.

Regioselective Borylation of Porphyrins by CH Bond Activation under Iridium Catalysis to Afford Useful Building Blocks for Porphyrin Assemblies

Highly regioselective and efficient borylation of a variety of porphyrins has been achieved by reaction with bis(pinacolato)diboron through C-H bond activation under iridium catalysis on the basis of the synthetic protocol developed by Miyaura, Hartwig, and Smith. A boryl group can be selectively introduced at sterically uncongested positions in the peripheral aryl groups of porphyrin substrates whose peripheral beta-positions are sterically hindered. Curiously, beta substituents adjacent to the aryl group to be borylated have unexpectedly large effects on the regioselectivity, because the iridium catalyst can discriminate between subtle steric differences. Chemoselective borylation was also achieved for several functionalized porphyrins. This borylation protocol can be applied to various monomeric and oligomeric functional porphyrins, hence offering an efficient route to elaborate multiporphyrin-based molecular constructs.

Rhodium-catalyzed hydroborations of allylamine and allylimines1

The in situ rhodium-catalyzed addition of catecholborane (HBcat, cat = 1,2-O2C6H4) and pinacolborane (HBpin, pin = 1,2-O2C2Me4) to allylamine, allylimine, 2- and 4-vinylpyridines, and a thienyl imine has been examined using multinuclear NMR spectroscopy. Although reactions of allylamine (H2NCH2CH=CH2) and HBcat gave complex product distributions arising from competing dehydrogenative borylation pathways, addition of HBpin to allylamine using a rhodium catalyst afforded only products arising from hydroboration (RN(Bpin)CH2CH2CH2Bpin, where R = H, Bpin) and hydrogenation (RN(Bpin)CH2CH2CH3). Hydroboration of allylimines (RHC=NCH2CH=CH2, R = Ar) with HBcat occurs initially at the more reactive imine functionality to give unsaturated borylamines (RCH2N(Bcat)CH2CH=CH2). Further reaction with HBcat gives varying amounts of hydroboration products RCH2N(Bcat)CH2CH2CH2Bcat and RCH2N(Bcat)CH2CH(Bcat)CH3 as well as the diboration product RCH2N(Bcat)CH2CH2CH(Bcat)2, depending on the choice of catalyst. Reactions with related unsaturated pyridine derivatives are complicated by extensive degradation, which can be avoided by coordination of the pyridine nitrogen to a Lewis acid. The first examples of metal-catalyzed hydroboration of imines using HBpin are also reported.Key words: catalysis, hydroboration, boronate esters, dehydrogenative borylation, allylimines.