Recently, the research work of Prof. Yongshu Xie group, entitled "Macrocyclic Transformations from Norrole to Isonorrole and an N-confused Corrole with a Fused Hexacyclic Ring Triggered by a Pyrrole Substituent" was published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. (2016, 55(9), 3063-3067). This work is another breakthrough on porphyrins and porphyrinoids by Prof. Xie group.

    Porphyrins widely occur in natural systems such as chlorophyll and heme, which exhibit important photoelectronic functions. The development of novel porphyrinoids with specific functionality is an interesting research topic for chemists. Especially, the researches on macrocyclic transformations are of importance for developing novel porphyrinoid skeletons with unique properties. As an important class of porphyrinoids, N-confused porphyrins are of particular interests in anion sensing, supermolecular assembly, stabilization of high-valent metals and luminescent materials in the NIR region. Based on their previous work, Prof. Yongshu Xie group develop a new method for the macrocycle transformations of porphyrinoids, and modulate their spectral properties by multiple ring fusion reactions. Based on this method, the researchers in this area may design and synthesize novel porphyrinoids with unique structures and properties to construct novel photoelectronic functional systems.

     The experiments were completed by a master candidate Miao Li and Dr. Pingchun Wei. And this work was accomplished thanks to the help from Prof. Hiroyuki Furuta at Kyushu University, Dr. Xin Li at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Prof. Zhongping Ou at Jiangsu University and Prof. Sihai Yang at University of Manchester.

    In recent years, Prof. Yongshu Xie group has achieved a series of important results in design, syntheses and properties of novel porphyrins and porphyrinoids (JACS, 2015, 137, 14055; Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2014, 53, 10955; Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2014, 53, 14069; JACS, 2013, 135, 19119; and Chem. Soc. Rev., 2015, 44, 1101).

    The aformentioned work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China, Science Fund for Creative Research Groups, NSFC/China, and the Oriental Scholarship.