Cofacial porphyrin dimers assembled from N-heterocyclic carbene–metal bonds

Abstract

A porphyrin bearing four imidazolium rings on the meso positions was used as an N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) precursor for the synthesis of porphyrin dimers with face-to-face orientations. The porphyrins are connected through the formation of eight M–C_NHC bonds, with M = Ag^I or Au^I.