Dipyrromethanes (fragments containing two pyrrole units) are crucial intermediates for the synthesis of porphyrins, such as meso-substituted core modified porphyrins and their use in oxidative reactions of organic substrates are of interest in porphyrin model system studies and such compounds have shown potential as industrial catalyst.
The process presented here shows wide applicability for the preparation of 5, 10, 15, 20-tetra aryl substituted porphyrins with two-fold rotation symmetry. In the prior art, these meso-substituted dipyrromethanes have been prepared by any of the following procedures. 1. By acid catalyzed condensation of pyrrole and aldehyde in suitable solvents such as dichloromethane (Homogenous conditions), where the acid catalysts employed are trifluoroacetic, acid, propionic acid (neat), TiCl4, BF3—Etherate, etc. (References: Lee. C. H, Li, F. Iwamoto N; Dadok, J; Bothner-By, A. A; J. S Tetrahedron. 1995,51,11,645.2; Wallace, D. M; Leung, S. H.; Senge, M. O.; Smith K. M. J. Org. Chemistry, 1993,58,7245.3; Sessler, J. C. Capuano V. C., Harriman, A.J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1993, 115,4618.4; Pandey, R. K., Forsyth, T. P., Gerzevske. K. R., Lin, J. J., Smith K. M., Tetrahedron Lett. 1992,33,5315). In all the above references the use of resins has not been mentioned.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,919,923 and 5,883,246 (both 1999) describe the synthesis of tripyrranes in which dipyrromethanes are obtained as a by-product. Although these patents mention probable use of resins as catalysts, there is no example illustrating the use of resins. The entire specification emphasizes the use of strong Lewis acids. The use of strong Lewis acids provides tripyrranes because of the strong acidity. Because of the strong acidity there is no control as the formation of the products. The above mentioned patents primarily describe the process for preparation of tripyrranes with a small amount of dipyrromethanes as by-products.
It has been observed that if weak Lewis acids such as resins are used instead of strong Lewis acids the selectivity for dipyrromethanes is very high because of controlled acidity. However, prior art processes suffer from several disadvantages such as:    (a) Formation of oligomers due to homogenous acidic conditions along with dipyrromethanes.    (b) Variations in the yields of dipyrromethanes in case of acid sensitive aldehydes.    (c) Involves complex work-up followed by stringent column chromatorgraphy to get pure dipyrromethane.