It's always pleasant to see your real old works get validated from time to
time by others. Well over 25 years ago, to demonstrate the synthetic utility
of our novel pyrrole synthesis, we constructed several expanded porphyrin
systems and also explored their metal chelating capacity. Interestingly, Setsune, et al. from Japan
recently (2015) built a highly similar molecule with only difference around the peripheral
decorations. The bis-Rh complexes of two expanded porphyrins have adopted the same
comformation in which both Rh atoms are sitting on the same side of macrocyclic ring system.
The X-rays of these two bis-Rhodium complexes show that the Rh…Rh distances
are nearly identical!
