Near‐IR Absorbing Nickel(II) Porphyrinoids Prepared by Regioselective Insertion of Silylenes into Antiaromatic Nickel(II) Norcorrole

Abstract

Abstract The treatment of an antiaromatic norcorrole Ni II complex with a kinetically stabilized silylene provided ring‐expansion products in excellent yields through the highly regio‐ and stereoselective insertion into the β‐β pyrrolic CC bonds. The resultant Ni II porphyrinoid monoinsertion product exhibited relatively strong near‐IR absorption bands due to the small HOMO–LUMO gap in spite of the disrupted cyclic π‐conjugation by the silicon atom.