Highly soluble Ni(II) dithienylnorcorrole

Recently, norcorrole Ni(II) complexes have received much attention because they exhibit peculiar solid-state structures and fascinating electronic properties originating from their distinct antiaromatic character. In this work, we have prepared a norcorrole Ni(II) complex with 5-hexylthien-2-yl substituents at the meso-positions, of which the antiaromatic nature was evaluated by 1 H NMR analysis as well as NICS and ACID calculations. The X-ray diffraction analysis elucidated its molecular structure and crystal packing arrangement. Crystal packing structures of Ni(II) meso-di(5-methylthien-2-yl)norcorrole and Ni(II) meso-di(5-hexylthien-2-yl)norcorrole were markedly different. The latter provided a polar crystal because of the unidirectional alignment of 5-hexylthien-2-yl groups in the solid state.