Abstract
This review updates the original Science of Synthesis chapter (Section 17.9) on phthalocyanines and various ring-fused, ring-contracted,
and ring-expanded analogues. It adds some recently published methods, examples, and
variations on the synthesis of unsubstituted phthalocyanines and metal phthalocyanines,
as well as identically and nonidentically substituted phthalocyanine derivatives.
Besides peripheral substitution, axial functionalization is also discussed, but attention
is focused only on those methods that represent appreciable progress for a particular
type of metal coordination and axial functionalization, provide phthalocyanines with
specific features such as chirality, or allow the functionalization of phthalocyanines
with entities that are difficult to introduce at the peripheral sites. This account
also includes sections on new types of phthalocyanine derivatives and analogues that
were not covered in the original chapter, as well as the progress made in the synthesis
of some of these families in the decade since 2003.
