Triptycene as a rigid, 120° orienting, three-pronged, covalent scaffold for porphyrin arrays

The synthesis of novel porphyrin trimers covalently linked by one central, rigid triptycene unit is described. Reaction of 2,6,14-triiodotriptycene, generated in a three-step synthesis from triptycene, with borylated porphyrins under Suzuki cross-coupling conditions afforded porphyrin trimers. In addition, Sonogashira cross-coupling conditions could be successfully applied for the synthesis of trimeric porphyrin arrays as well.