Planar and Nonplanar Conformations of (meso-Tetraphenylporphinato)nickel(II) in Solution As Inferred from Solution and Solid-State Raman Spectroscopy

The coexistence in solution of at least two conformers of (meso-tetraphenylporphinato)nickel(II) [Ni(TPP)] is inferred from solution and single-crystal resonance Raman spectra obtained at different temperatures (170 − 297 K) and excitation wavelengths (413.1 and 457.9 nm). The shapes of the structure-sensitive Raman lines ν8 and ν2 are clearly asymmetric and change with temperature. These broad lines can be decomposed into at least two sublines, a low-frequency (LF) and a high-frequency (HF) component. In contrast, the corresponding single-crystal Raman lines of the nonplanar structure of Ni(TPP) in the crystal are narrow and symmetric. For the line ν2, the broad LF subline results from nonplanar conformers and the narrow HF subline arises from a more planar conformer. This assignment is consistent with the observation that the LF subline of ν2 is more enhanced upon changing the excitation wavelength from 413.1 to 457.9 nm. The selective resonance enhancement is caused by the red shifts of the UV−visible ...