Metalloporphyrins electrochemical properties

In the most important series of polymers of this type, the metallotetraphenylporphyrins, a metalloporphyrin ring bears four substituted phenylene groups X, as is shown in 7.19. The metals M in the structure are typically iron, cobalt, or nickel cations, and the substituents on the phenylene groups include -NH2, -NR2, and -OH. These polymers are generally insoluble. Some have been prepared by electro-oxidative polymerizations in the form of electroactive films on electrode surfaces.79 The cobalt-metallated polymer is of particular interest since it is an electrocatalyst for the reduction of dioxygen. Films of poly(trisbipyridine)-metal complexes also have interesting electrochemical properties, in particular electrochromism and electrical conductivity.78 The closely related polymer, poly(2-vinylpyridine), also forms metal complexes, for example with copper(II) chloride.80... 

Iridium porphyrins have been the least-studied among the Group 9 metalloporphyrins. Only a few types of iridium porphyrins have been investigated for their electrochemical properties, including (P)Ir(CO)Cl [102], (P)[Ir(CO)3]2 [103] and [(P)IrCl2]dppe [290], where P = OEP or TPP. Metal-centered and ring-centered processes are observed for (P)[Ir(CO)3]2 [102], while (P)Ir(CO)Cl and [(P)IrCl2]dppe are characterized by only macrocycle-centered processes. 

Cuesta L, Karnas E, Lynch VM, Sessler JL, Kajonkijya W, Zhu W, Zhang M, Ou Z, Kadish KM, Ohkubo K, Fukuzumi S (2008) (Pentamethylcyclopentadienyl)ruthenium n-complexes of metalloporphyrins platforms with novel photo- and electrochemical properties. Chem Fur J 14(33) 10206-10210... 

Tetrapyrrolic macrocycles, such as porphyrin, consisted of four pyrrole units bonded by different bridges, for example methene in the case of porphyrins and aza-methene in the case of phthalocyanines [1]. These ligands can complex metal ion transition and the synthesized metallocomplexes are extremely stable [2, 3]. While some metalloporphyrins constitute the redox center of naturally occurring proteins, like heme in hemoglobin, metallophthalocyanines are purely synthetic molecules. The (electro) chemical properties of MN4 complexes have been widely studied and have been particularly used for the catalysis of several electrochemical reactions in homogeneous solutions [4]. It was shown that the electrochemical properties of a... 

ORR catalysis by Fe or Co porphyrins in Nation [Shi and Anson, 1990 Anson et al., 1985 Buttry and Anson, 1984], polyp5rrolidone [Wan et al., 1984], a surfactant [Shi et al., 1995] or lipid films [CoUman and Boulatov, 2002] on electrode surfaces has been studied. The major advantages of diluting a metalloporphyrin in an inert film include the abUity to study the catalytic properties of isolated molecules and the potentially higher surface loading of the catalyst without mass transport Umit-ations. StabUity of catalysts may also improve upon incorporating them into a polymer. However, this setup requires that the catalyst have a reasonable mobUity in the matrix, and/or that a mobile electron carrier be incorporated in the film [Andrieux and Saveant, 1992]. The latter limits the accessible electrochemical potentials to that of the electron carrier. 

In summary, the four chemical systems described in this paper demonstrate the versatility and selectivity of electrochemical methods for synthesis and characterization of metal-carbon a-bonded metalloporphyrins. The described rhodium and cobalt systems demonstrate significant differences with respect to their formation, stability and to some extend, reactivity of the low valent species. On the other hand, properties of the electroche-mically generated mono-alkyl or mono-aryl germanium and silicon systems are similar to each other. 

In all cases, the films were obtained by oxidative electropolymerization of the cited substituted complexes from organic or aqueous solutions. The mechanism of metalloporphyrin Him formation was suggested to be a radical-cation induced polymerization of the substituents on the periphery of the macrocycle. As it was reported for the case of polypyrrole-based materials ", cyclic voltammetry and UV-visible spectroscopy with optically transparent electrodes were extensively used to provide information on the polymeric films (electroactivity, photometric properties, chemical stability, conductivity, etc.). Based on the available data, it appears that the electrochemical polymerization of the substituted complexes leads to well-structured multilayer films. It also appears that the low conductivity of the formed films, combined with the cross-linking effects due to the steric hindrance induced by the macrocyclic Ugand, confers to these materials a certain number of limitations such as the limited continuous growth of the polymers due to the absence of electronic conductivity of the films. Indeed, the charge transport in many of these films acts only by electron-hopping process between porphyrin sites. 

The electrochemical immobilization of other metallic complexes like metalloporphyrins in PPy [147, 203, 204] led to materials exhibiting electrocatalytic properties with respect to the oxidation of hydrocarbons [147] and hindered phenols [204] by molecular oxygen. 

Thus, three chiral free base porphyrins and three chiral metalloporphyrins incorporating the SBF unit have been synthesized (Scheme 13) and their properties (electrochemical, optical and as catalyst) will be described below. 

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