A one-pot, direct reductive acetylation of aldehydes was achieved under mild conditions using 1-hydrosilatrane as a safe and easily accessible catalyst. Described herein is a facile synthesis that produces acylated primary alcohols that can serve as valuable building blocks for organic synthesis. The method has good functional group tolerance and works for a range of aryl aldehydes, with the notable exception of electron-rich arenes. A library of esters was isolated by flash chromatography in yields as high as 92%.

Porphyrins are cornerstone functional materials that are useful in a wide variety of settings ranging from molecular electronics to biology and medicine. Their applications are often hindered, however, by poor solubilities that result from their extended , solvophobic aromatic surfaces. Attempts to counteract this problem by functionalizing their peripheries have been met with only limited success. Here, we demonstrate a versatile strategy to tune the physical and electronic properties of porphyrins using an axial functionalization approach. Porphyrin silanes (PorSils) and bissilyloxy PorSils (SOPS) are prepared from porphyrins by operationally simple κ4N-silylation protocols, introducing bulky silyloxy "caps" that are central and perpendicular to the planar porphyrin. While porphyrins typically form either J-or H-aggregates, SOPS do not self-associate in the same manner: the silyloxy axial substit-uents dramatically improve solubility by inhibiting aggregation. Moreover, axial porphyrin functionalization offers convenient handles through which optical, electronic, and structural properties of the porphyrin core can be modulated. We observe that the identity of the silyloxy substituent impacts the degree of planarity of the porphyrin in the solid state as well as the redox potentials. File list (2) download file view on ChemRxiv PorSil paper final.pdf (2.97 MiB) download file view on ChemRxiv PorSil SI final.pdf (18.18 MiB)

<div> <div> <div> <p>Porphyrins are cornerstone functional materials that are useful in a wide variety of settings ranging from molecular electronics to biology and medicine. Their applications are often hindered, however, by poor solubilities that result from their extended, solvophobic aromatic surfaces. Attempts to counteract this problem by functionalizing their peripheries have been met with only limited success. Here, we demonstrate a versatile strategy to tune the physical and electronic properties of porphyrins using an axial functionalization approach. Porphyrin silanes (PorSils) and bissilyloxy PorSils (SOPS) are prepared from porphyrins by operationally simple κ4N-silylation protocols, introducing bulky silyloxy “caps” that are central and perpendicular to the planar porphyrin. While porphyrins typically form either J- or H-aggregates, SOPS do not self-associate in the same manner: the silyloxy axial substituents dramatically improve solubility by inhibiting aggregation. Moreover, axial porphyrin functionalization offers convenient handles through which optical, electronic, and structural properties of the porphyrin core can be modulated. We observe that the identity of the silyloxy substituent impacts the degree of planarity of the porphyrin in the solid state as well as the redox potentials. </p> </div> </div> </div>

<div> <div> <div> <p>Porphyrins are cornerstone functional materials that are useful in a wide variety of settings ranging from molecular electronics to biology and medicine. Their applications are often hindered, however, by poor solubilities that result from their extended, solvophobic aromatic surfaces. Attempts to counteract this problem by functionalizing their peripheries have been met with only limited success. Here, we demonstrate a versatile strategy to tune the physical and electronic properties of porphyrins using an axial functionalization approach. Porphyrin silanes (PorSils) and bissilyloxy PorSils (SOPS) are prepared from porphyrins by operationally simple κ4N-silylation protocols, introducing bulky silyloxy “caps” that are central and perpendicular to the planar porphyrin. While porphyrins typically form either J- or H-aggregates, SOPS do not self-associate in the same manner: the silyloxy axial substituents dramatically improve solubility by inhibiting aggregation. Moreover, axial porphyrin functionalization offers convenient handles through which optical, electronic, and structural properties of the porphyrin core can be modulated. We observe that the identity of the silyloxy substituent impacts the degree of planarity of the porphyrin in the solid state as well as the redox potentials. </p> </div> </div> </div>