New effective synthons for supramolecular self-assembly of meso-carboxyphenylporphyrins

Tesselation of new supramolecular motifs of the tetra(4-carboxyphenyl)porphyrin building blocks by metal ion templates has been demonstrated in crystals, characterizing the square-planar [Na+·(–COOH)4·X− ] and the tetrahedral [Zn2+·(–COOH)2·(–COO −)2] molecular recognition elements for effective multiporphyrin assembly.