Porphyrins and Corroles with 2,6-Pyrimidyl Substituents

Heterocyclic aromatic compounds are cyclic compounds that are aromatic and have one or more heteroatoms—atoms other than carbon, in the ring. Depending upon the number of atoms present in the ring, they can be either five or six-membered. Examples of five-membered heterocyclic aromatic compounds include pyrrole, furan, thiophene, and imidazole. Pyrrole consists of one nitrogen atom having one lone pair of electrons. Furan and thiophene have one oxygen and one sulfur heteroatom,...

Heterocyclic amines, where the N atom is a part of an alicyclic system, are similar in basicity to alkylamines. Interestingly, the heterocyclic amine having a nitrogen atom as part of an aromatic ring has much less basicity than its corresponding alicyclic counterpart. For this reason, as presented in Figure 1, piperidine (pKb = 2.8) is significantly more basic than pyridine (pKb = 8.8).

When more than one substituent is present on the benzene ring, the IUPAC nomenclature depends on the number of substituents present.
For disubstituted benzene derivatives, with two groups attached to the benzene ring, three constitutional isomers are possible. For example, consider dimethyl benzene, often called xylene, where the second methyl group can be substituted at the second, third, or fourth carbon. The relative position of the substituents is represented by prefixes ortho, meta, or...

In the presence of oxidizing agents, phenols are oxidized to quinones. Quinones can be easily reduced back to phenols using mild reducing agents. The electron-donating hydroxyl group enhances the reactivity of the aromatic ring, enabling oxidation of the ring even in the absence of an α hydrogen.
o-hydroxy phenols are oxidized to o-quinones and p-hydroxy phenols to p-quinones. Such redox reactions involve the transfer of two electrons and two protons. The reversible redox...