Title

Effect of meso-substituents on the osmium tetraoxide reaction and pinacol-pinacolone rearrangement of the corresponding vic-dihydroxyporphyrins

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-1-2001

Abstract

To investigate the effects of electron-donating and electron-withdrawing substituents upon the reaction of porphyrins with osmium tetraoxide, and the pinacol-pinacolone rearrangement of the resulting diols, a series of meso-substituted porphyrins were prepared by total synthesis. Porphyrins with electron-donating substitutents at the meso-positions gave vic-dihydroxychlorins in which the adjacent pyrrole subunit was predominantly oxidized. No such selectivity was observed in a porphyrin containing a methoxycarbonyl as the electron-withdrawing group, whereas a formyl substituent again resulted in oxidation at the pyrrole unit adjacent to the meso-substituent. Under pinacol-pinacolone conditions, vic-dihydroxy chlorins containing 4-methoxyphenyl or 3,5-dimethoxyphenyl groups at the meso-position showed preferential migration of the ethyl group over the methyl group to give 8-ketochlorins, whereas the diol with an n-heptyl substituent under similar reaction conditions gave both 7- and 8-ketochlorins. In contrast, the diol containing a meso-formyl substituent produced the corresponding 7-ketochlorin exclusively. These results indicate that it is not possible to predict the reactivity of meso-substituted porphyrins in the osmium tetraoxide reaction nor the general substituent migratory aptitudes in the pinacol-pinacolone rearrangement based on simple electronic arguments, most likely because many parameters (e.g., meso-β-pyrrolic steric crowding and long-range electronic effects) ultimately determine the reactivity. The structural assignments of the porphyrin diols and the keto-analogues were confirmed by extensive 1H NMR studies; some of the dihydroxychlorins and ketochlorins were found to display unusual features in their 1H NMR spectra.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Journal of Organic Chemistry

First Page

3930

Last Page

3939

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