A Synthetic Strategy for Cofacial Porphyrin‐Based Homo‐ and Heterobimetallic Complexes

We present a straightforward and generally applicable synthesis route for cofacially linked homo‐ and heterobimetallic porphyrin complexes. The protocol allows the synthesis of unsymmetrical aryl‐based meso‐meso as well as β‐meso‐linked porphyrins. Our method significantly increases the overall yield for the published compound known as o‐phenylene‐bisporphyrin (OBBP) by a factor of 6.8. Besides the synthesis of 16 novel homobimetallic complexes containing MnIII, FeIII, NiII, CuII, ZnII, and PdII, we achieved the first single‐crystal X‐ray structure of an unsymmetrical cofacial benzene‐linked porphyrin dimer containing both planar‐chiral enantiomers of a NiII2 complex. Additionally, this new methodology allows access to heterobimetallic complexes such as the FeIII‐NiII containing carbon monoxide dehydrogenase active site analogue. The isolated species were investigated by various techniques, including ion mobility spectrometry, DFT calculations, and UV/Vis spectroscopy. This allowed us to probe the influence of interplane distance on Soret band splitting. Simple route to dimeric complexes: Three different types of covalently linked metalloporphyrin dimers were synthesized. The monomers were synthesized sequentially and can be filled with metals before linking. As a result, different heterobimetallic systems can be made. Depending on the metals M1 and M2 used (M=Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Pd), a wide range of potentially catalytically active species can be prepared, such as analogues of carbon monoxide dehydrogenase.