Historic overview and new developments in synthetic methods for preparation of the rare-earth tetrapyrrolic complexes

•In this review, we have discussed the historic and the recent developments in synthetic strategies for preparation of the rare-earth porphyrins, phthalocyanines, and related compounds.•The review covers the time span between 1965 and mid-2015.•Synthetic pathways for selective preparation of the homoleptic and heteroleptic double- and triple-decker complexes are discussed in detail.•Although the first report on rareearth phthalocyanines was in 1965, the general field of multi-decker homoleptic and heteroleptic porphyrins and their analogues is still under development.

New developments as well as a historic overview on synthetic strategies for preparation of the rare-earth complexes with porphyrins, phthalocyanines, naphthalocyanines, tetraazaporphyrins, and related systems are discussed in detail with emphasis on selective synthetic pathways for preparation of single-, double-, and triple-decker architectures.

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