Benzoyl peroxide triphenylphosphine compound

Both of the above approaches employed a metal ion as a template about which the corrin cyclization was performed, but the nickel or cobalt ions could not subsequently be removed. In order to obtain metal-free corrins, a new route was therefore devised (67AG865) which employed the novel principle of sulfide contraction (Scheme 22). Thus the sodium salt of the precorrin (284) (Scheme 23) was transformed into the thiolactam (285), and loose complexation with zinc(II) ions caused cyclization to give (286), which was treated with benzoyl peroxide and acid to give the ring-expanded compound (287). Contraction with TFA/DMF gave the corrins (288) and (289), and the major of these (289) was desulfurized with triphenylphosphine and acid to give (288). Finally, demetallation with TFA gave the required metal-free corrin (290), a source for a whole variety of metal derivatives. 

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