ABSTRACT:Exhaustive electro-oxidation of ZnOEP in the presence of pyridine and Et 4 NPF 6 affords in high yield the new tetracationic porphyrin in which the four meso protons of ZnOEP are replaced by four pyridinium groups linked via their nitrogens: 10,15,3,7,8,12,13,17, 4 PF À 6 4 , 1. The compound has been characterized by elemental analysis, 1 H NMR, and crystallography. The latter confirms the preparative electrosynthetic methodology and molecular structure of 1, and shows the porphyrin skeleton to adopt a severely nonplanar saddle conformation which minimizes steric crowding between the 12 peripheral substituents. As a consequence of the nonplanarity (and the high charge) of the complex, 1 exhibits significant redshifts of the visible and Soret bands as well as a considerable broadening and loss of intensity of the latter. 1 first undergoes four one-electron reduction steps at the four pyridinium sites before the normal one-electron reduction of the porphyrin p-system.