Phthalocyanines are widely used in industry. They are very stable compounds and have found utility in optical storage media, as organic semiconductors, in laser printers, for photodynamic therapy, and even in deodorants. Extending their diverse chemistry still further to complexes with two metal centers is the aim of researchers at Tohoku University, RIKEN, Japan, and the Organic Intermediates and Dyes Institute in Moscow, Russia. They synthesized entirely novel rectangular complexes with either two tungsten or two molybdenum atoms at their heart.
These compounds have absorption and emission bands in the near-infrared, so have potential in solar power and electroluminescence applications.

• Rectangular-Shaped Expanded Phthalocyanines with Two Central Metal Atoms,
  O. Matsushita, V. M. Derkacheva, A. Muranaka, S. Shimizu, M. Uchiyama, E. A. Luk’yanets, N. Kobayashi,
  J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2012.
  DOI: 10.1021/ja209589x