“…A one-pot template method now yields gram quantities of Zn-TBP [7], and both ring [8] and meso-substituted species [9,10] have been prepared. Recent work has appeared on Fe [11], Pt [12,13], Pd [12], Zn [6,14], Cd [15], Mg [15], Co [16] and Ge [16] complexes, and ring-oxidized M-TBP iodides [17,18], where M stands for a metal. The spectrum of Mg-TBP resembles that of chlorophyll [19] and it has been suggested [20] that both H 2 -TBP and Mg-TBP(py) 2 , where py stands for pyridine (as well as the chlorin of porphin [21]) are constituents of interstellar dust.…”