Novel synthetic strategies for a series of unsymmetrically substituted 2, 2'-bipyridines have been developed. These bipyridines have found use in some novel homoleptic and heteroleptic ruthenium (II) complexes. Two methods for regiochemical control of nucleophilic addition to bpy have been explored:(i) mono TV-oxidation followed by cyanation and subsequent hydrolysis gave 6-carboxy-2, 2'-bipyridine (4);(ii) mono A'-methylation ...