Modern synthetic tools toward the preparation of sophisticated phthalocyanine-based photoactive systems

Phthalocyanines are ideal components in a variety of electronic applications due to their extraordinary photophysical characteristics combined with their synthetic versatility and robustness. They have attracted substantial attention in recent decades and are now established building blocks of sophisticated molecular materials. Synthetically, a great deal of this progress is attributed to the use of modern synthetic tools, which gave rise to phthalocyanine-based systems that could not have been envisaged in the past. In particular, Pd-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions, together with other transition-metal-catalyzed procedures, "click" chemistry, and ruthenium metathesis have been employed extensively en route to an abundant range of elaborate phthalocyanine mono- and multicomponent photoactive architectures. Herein, we describe the synthesis of a selection of key examples that are representative in certain optoelectronic applications.