Oxidation of Porphyrins in the Presence of Nucleophiles: From the Synthesis of Multisubstituted Porphyrins to the Electropolymerization of the Macrocycles

International audienceElectropolymerization of porphyrins has been initially developed by Macor and Spiro, who have polymerized vinyl-substituted porphyrins, the coupling occurring after the formation of vinyl radicals by electrooxidation (Macor & Spiro, 1983). Afterwards, other methods of electropolymerization have been published, for example from hydroxy-, amino-, pyrrole- or thiophene-substituted porphyrins (Bedioui et al., 1995; Bettelheim et al., 1987; Li et al., 2005).In this context, we have developed an original methodology for the electropolymerization of porphyrins, based on nucleophilic attacks of di-pyridyl compounds directly onto electrooxidized porphyrins. This chapter presents an overview of this new method of electropolymerization