meso-Pyrimidinyl-substituted A2B-corroles were synthesized in good yields by condensation of 5-mesityldipyrromethane and 2-substituted 4,6-dichloropyrimidine-5-carbaldehydes. A simple reduction of the amount of Lewis acid (BF3.OEt2) resulted in the formation of A2B-corroles, which was optimized to maximize the corrole yield. Nucleophilic aromatic substitution, Suzuki, and Stille cross-coupling reactions were performed on the Cu-metalated pyrimidinylcorroles to obtain sterically encumbered triarylcorroles, while the substitution pattern at the 2-position of the pyrimidinyl substituent was altered through Liebeskind-Srogl cross-couplings.

A convergent synthetic strategy toward novel all-porphyrin dendrimers, which can be regarded as synthetic model systems of the natural photosynthetic light-harvesting antennae, was successfully explored. The dendron propagation, based on nucleophilic aromatic substitution reactions on a meso-dichloropyrimidinyl substituted porphyrin AB2 monomer, was carried out up to the second-generation dendron, and the used approach was proven to be compatible with the stepwise introduction of different metals in the successive generations. Three different metals (Pt, Zn, and Ni) could be introduced in the second-generation heptaporphyrin dendron. By applying analogous meso-dichloropyrimidinyl substituted porphyrin cores, novel multiporphyrin dendrimers were obtained.

Condensation of 4,6-dichloro-2-phenylpyrimidine-5-carbaldehyde with pyrrole enables the synthesis of a number of expanded porphyrins of which the [26]hexaphyrin was easily isolated and successfully converted into the decasubstituted doubly N-fused hexaphyrin variant.