Abstract: One aspect of the present invention relates to a method of forming chemical compounds and, in particular, chemical intermediates having one or more pyrrole sub-units and at least one protecting group bonded to an atom within a pyrrole sub-unit. The method further involves removal of the protecting group so as to provide a desired chemical compound having one or more pyrrole sub-units. The method can be employed in making porphyrin compounds.

Abstract: A method for synthesizing porphyrin compounds includes the step of removing one or more substituent groups from a substituted porphyrin compound. Preferably, the removal step involves acid cleavage and the substituent group is an acid cleavable substituent such as a t-butyl group. Another aspect involves a method which produces porphyrin compounds from substituted pyrrole compounds, where the substituent on the pyrrole compound selected so as to aid in the porphyrin ring formation, which substituent can be subsequently removed. In this regard, the method comprises (i) reacting the substituted pyrrole compound so as to provide a substituted porphyrin compound containing the substituent(s) followed by (ii) removal of the substituents from the substituted porphyrin compound.