Vanadyl β-tetrabromoporphyrin: synthesis, crystal structure and its use as an efficient and selective catalyst for olefin epoxidation in aqueous medium.

We hereby report the synthesis, characterization and catalytic applications in the epoxidation of alkenes by a vanadyl porphyrin having bulky bromo substituents at the β-positions vanandyltetrabromotetraphenylporphyrin (1). The synthesized porphyrin was characterized by various spectroscopic techniques like UV-visible, FT-IR, EPR, MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry and single crystal X-ray analysis. Porphyrin 1 has a nonplanar structure as indicated by its X-ray structure, DFT and electrochemical studies.