Abstract
The analytical separation and analysis of silver, nickel, zinc and palladium complexes of tetra(pentafluorophenyl)porpholactone (TFPL) from free bases is described. An isocratic mobile phase of n-hexane and diethyl ether was developed to separate these complexes using a normal phase μPorasil HPLC column (150 × 3.9 mm I. D.) at a flow rate of 1 mL/min. In addition, two porphodilactone isomers were also isolated from the reaction products, a result which we were unable to achieve with flash chromatography nor with a reversed phase C18 Ultrasphere HPLC column (250 × 4.6 mm I. D.). The optical absorption spectra of the metal derivatives show two bands in the visible region, compared to the four bands shown by the free base. The retention of these metal complexes on a normal phase column was found to be increasing in the order Pd(TFPL) < Ag(TFPL) < Zn(TFPL) < Ni(TFPL).