Fabrications of potential imaging probes based on a β-alkyl substituted porphyrin with a terpyridine external coordination site

We report synthesis and coordination properties of β-alkyl porphyrin derivatives bearing terpyridylphenyl substituents at the meso-position and propionate side chains at the β-positions. Rhenium(I) carbonyl ion was encapsulated not in the core but in the external terpyridyl ligand. Such porphyrin-terpyridine hybrid porphyrins can be potentially available for less-invasive imaging like SPECT.