A novel manganese(III)-porphyrin complex, namely, catena-poly[[chloridomanganese(III)]-2 -5,10,15,20-tetrakis(pyridin-3-yl)-21H,23H-porphinato(2À)-5 N 21 ,N 22 ,N 23 ,N 24 :N 5 ], [MnCl(C 40 H 24 N 8 )] n , 1, was prepared by the hydrothermal reaction of manganese chloride with 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(pyridin-3-yl)-21H,23Hporphine. The crystal structure was determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The porphyrin macrocycle exhibits a saddle-like distortion geometry. The Mn III atom has a six-coordination geometry. Each porphyrin unit links to two neighbouring units to yield a one-dimensional coordination polymer. These chains are further interlinked by hydrogen bonds to form a two-dimensional network. The complex shows red photoluminescence emission bands in ethanol solution, which can be attributed to ligand-to-ligand charge transfer (LLCT) accompanied by partial metal-to-ligand charge transfer (MLCT), as revealed by TDDFT calculations.research papers 376 Wen-Tong Chen A 1D manganese(III)-porphyrin polymer