posted on 1999-06-10, 00:00authored byMikio Nakamura, Tatsuya Yamaguchi, Yoshiki Ohgo
Barriers to inversion of the highly deformed porphyrin rings in two ferric porphyrin radical cations, [Fe(OMTPP)Cl]SbCl6 and [Fe(OETPP)Cl]SbCl6 where OMTPP and OETPP are dianions of 2,3,7,8,12,13,17,18-octamethyl-
and 2,3,7,8,12,13,17,18-octaethyl-5,10,15,20-tetraphenylporphyrin, respectively, have been determined by the
dynamic NMR method. Inversion barrier of [Fe(OMTPP)Cl]SbCl6 is estimated to be 14.8 kcal mol-1 (72 °C)
which is higher than that of the corresponding neutral porphyrin complex [Fe(OMTPP)Cl] by more than 4 kcal
mol-1. Increase in barrier to inversion has also been observed in [Fe(OETPP)Cl]SbCl6, though the precise
determination is hampered in this case due to the occurrence of site exchange of the ferric ion across the porphyrin
ring; the latter process is verified because the activation free energies obtained from the line shape analysis of the
meta and methyl signals are quite close, 18.1 (113 °C) and 17.9 (113 °C) kcal mol-1, respectively. Thus, the
inversion barrier in [Fe(OETPP)Cl]SbCl6 is supposed to be ≫18 kcal mol-1. Since the inversion barrier in the
corresponding neutral porphyrin complex [Fe(OETPP)Cl] is reported to be 15.8 kcal mol-1, the barrier has increased
by ≫2 kcal mol-1. These results are interpreted in terms of the enhanced nonplanarity of the radical cations as
compared with the corresponding neutral complexes. The interaction between porphyrin a2u and iron dx2-y2 orbitals
in the radical cations, which is expected to be strengthened in the deformed structure, could be one of the reasons
for the conformational change.