Maximizing Property Tuning of Phosphorus Corrole Photocatalysts through a Trifluoromethylation Approach.

An eight-member series of CF-substituted difluorophosphorus corroles was prepared for establishing a structure-activity profile of these high-potential photosensitizers. It consisted of preparing all four possible isomers of the monosubstituted corrole and complexes with 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-CF groups on the macrocycle's periphery. The synthetic pathway to these CF-substituted derivatives, beginning with (tpfc)PF, involves two different initial routes: (i) direct electrophilic CF incorporation using FSOCFCOMe and copper iodide, or (ii) bromination to achieve the 2,3,8,17,18-pentabrominated compound using excess bromine in methanol.