From Models of Hemoproteins to Self-Assembled Molecular Wires

In nature, the various properties of tetrapyrrolic macrocycles are mostly due to their proteic environment and result from an evolutionary process that is difficult to reproduce during the lifetime of a synthetic chemist. Thus, the task of synthetic chemists attempting to reproduce the biological role of porphyrin architectures, which perform functions from catalysis to light harvesting, is complicated. This account describes how a phenanthroline-strapped porphyrin architecture initially designed to afford new hemoprotein models led, over the last two decades, to the preparation of highly linear self-assembled nano-objects inspired by light-harvesting architectures. The approach summarized herein mimics, in a very modest way, the polyvalence of tetrapyrrolic macrocycles found in nature.