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meso-Phenyl- and meso-pentafluorophenyl-porpholactones, their metal complexes, as well as porphyrinoids directly derived from them are useful in a number of technical and biomedical applications, and more uses are expected to be discovered. About a dozen competing and complementary pathways toward their synthesis were reported. The suitability of the methods changes with the meso-aryl group and whether the free base or metal derivatives are sought. These circumstances make it hard for anyone outside of the field of synthetic porphyrin chemistry to ascertain which pathway is the best to produce which specific derivative. We report here on what we experimentally evaluated to be the most efficient pathways to generate the six key compounds from the commercially available porphyrins, meso-tetraphenylporphyrin (TPP) and meso-tetrakis(pentafluorophenyl)porphyrin (TFPP): free base meso-tetraphenylporpholactone (TPL) and meso-tetrakis(pentafluorophenyl)porpholactone (TFPL), and their platinum(II) and zinc(II) complexes TPLPt, TFPLPt, TPLZn, and TFPLZn, respectively. Detailed procedures are provided to make these intriguing molecules more readily available for their further study. 

An intramolecular S_NAr displacement of oneo‐fluorine atom of ameso‐pentafluorophenyl‐substituted porphyrin metal complex by a neighboring β‐amino functionality generated the correspondingmeso‐fluorophenyl‐substituted metallo‐quinolino[2,3,4‐at]porphyrins that are not accessible using established quinoline‐annulation methodologies. The Cu(II), Ni(II), and Zn(II) complexes were thus prepared. The parent free base quinolino[2,3,4‐at]porphyrin is accessible only by demetallation of the copper or zinc complexes. A strong through‐space NMR‐spectroscopic coupling between the remainingo‐fluorine atoms on the annulatedmeso‐aryl group and the β‐hydrogen atom on the adjacent pyrrole moiety provide a clear spectroscopic signature for the annulation. Quinoline‐annulation alters the optical properties significantly. On account of the presence of the β‐amino functionality, all quinoline‐annulated porphyrins show strong halochromic responses with Brønsted acids and bases, the prerequisite for their potential use in chemosensing applications.