A Porphyrin Fused to Four Anthracenes

We have synthesized a fused tetraanthracenylporphyrin by oxidation of a meso-anthracenyl nickel(II) porphyrin with FeCl3. This compound exhibits an intense red-shifted absorption spectrum (λmax = 1417 nm; ε = 1.2 × 105 M−1 cm−1) and a small electrochemical HOMO−LUMO gap (0.61 eV). The crystal structure shows that it forms π-stacked dimers with a short Ni···Ni distance (3.32 Å).