Abstract The finding that alkyl-and aryllithium reagents add almost instantly to the N–C2/C9 bond of 1, 10-phenanthrolines led us to the development of a reaction scheme where the C2 and C9 positions of 1, 10-phenanthroline can be functionalized by two different alkyl or aryl groups in a one-pot reaction. Furthermore, the total synthetic and work-up time needed for the entire transformation from unsubstituted 1, 10-phenanthrolines into asymmetric 2, 9- ...
