Silicon (IV) corroles

Silicon complexes of corrole were obtained for the first time by reaction of the free-base corrole with hexachlorodisilane. The peripheral substituents of corrole strongly influence the nature of the reaction products: β-octaalkyl corrole was mainly isolated as the μ-oxo dimer, while a hydroxo complex was obtained in the case of 5,10,15-tris-(pentafluorophenyl)corrole. In the case of meso-tritolyl corrole, a mixture of monomer/μ-oxo dimer was obtained. The silicon corrole complexes are more stable toward hydrolysis than the corresponding porphyrin derivatives and are endowed with brilliant luminescence properties. The high affinity of silicon for fluoride ion allowed investigation of the ability of an Si corrole to serve as a sensor for F− detection. The strong color variation due to the interaction with the halide ion makes the Si corrole an interesting material for the naked-eye detection of inorganic fluoride.