Patent ID: 7834175

Claim:
A method of preparing a macrocyclic metal cyanine, said method comprising the step of providing a corresponding macrocyclic metal-free cyanine compound dissolved in an organic solvent and adding a metal reagent thereto, said metal reagent being highly soluble in said organic solvent, wherein the macrocyclic metal cyanine is of formula (I): wherein Q 1 , Q 2 , Q 3 and Q 4 are the same or different and are independently selected from the group consisting of a C 3-20 arylene group and a C 3-20 heteroarylene group; M is selected from the group consisting Si(A 1 )(A 2 ), Ge(A 1 )(A 2 ), Ga(A 1 ), Mg, Al(A 1 ), TiO, Ti(A 1 )(A 2 ), ZrO, Zr(A 1 )(A 2 ), VO, V(A 1 )(A 2 ), Mn, Mn(A 1 ), Fe, Fe(A 1 ), Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Sn, Sn(A 1 )(A 2 ), Pb, Pb(A 1 )(A 2 ), Pd and Pt; A 1 and A 2 are axial ligands, which may be the same or different, and are selected from the group consisting of OH, halogen and OR 3 ; R 3 is a selected from the group consisting of C 1-12 alkyl, C 5-12 aryl, C 5-12 arylalkyl and Si(R x )(R y )(R z ); and R x , R y and R z may be the same or different and are selected from the group consisting of C 1-12 alkyl, C 5-12 aryl, C 5-12 arylalkyl, C 1-12 alkoxy, C 5-12 aryloxy and C 5-12 arylalkoxy.