Investigation of electrochemical and gas sensor properties of pyrrole-substituted phthalocyanines

In the first phase of the study, 3-nitrophthalonitrile and 4-(1H-pyrrol-1-yl)phenol were reacted under suitable conditions and with the nucleophilic aromatic substitution reaction, the corresponding 4-(1H-pyrrol-1-yl)phenoxyphthalonitrile was synthesized. The ligand was reacted with CoCl2, Zn(CH3COO)2, MnCl2 and Lu(CH3COO)2 to yield symmetric phthalocyanines. In the second part of the study, 4-(1H-pyrrol-1-yl)phenol and 4-nitrophthalonitrile are reacted in dry DMF to yield 4-(1H-pyrrol-1-yl)phenoxyphthalonitrile. This ligand was reacted with 4-tert-butylphthalonitrile, CoCl2 and MnCl2 and under statistical condensation conditions, non-symmetrical metallophthalocyanines were synthesized. The peripheral and non-peripheral phthalocyanines' structures were elucidated with FT-IR, UV-Vis, 1H-NMR and mass spectrometry. The last phase of the study was to fabricate modified electrodes having non-peripheral symmetric and non-symmetric phthalocyanines substituted pyrrole groups and their electrochemical and spectroelectrochemical properties were investigated. It was discovered that the non-symmetrical phthalocyanines were significantly reactive to ethanol vapors in especially high concentrations and it can be used as a sensor.