A novel porphyrin-fused porphyrin is formed by an oligomerization reaction
of a (porphyrinato)nickel complex with TeCl4; the isolated compound, [2]por
phyracene, was characterized by spectroscopic methods and direct observatio
n using scanning tunnelling microscopy; the excitation energy value of 1346
0 cm(-1) (743 nm) is the lowest value reported for porphyrin dimers.