A method for synthesizing porphyrin compounds

A method for synthesizing porphyrin compound 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.