The starting point of our synthetic strategy was 3-bromophenanthroline (2), [14] which, following a protocol of Sonogashira, [15] was coupled with trimethylsilylacetylene in the presence of [PdCl 2 (PPh 3 ) 2 ] and CuI to provide 3 in 92 % yield (Scheme [2] ). The arene groups were then added in positions 2 and 9 by nucleophilic substitution according to Sauvage. [16] After some optimization, we realized that the stepwise addition of both aryl groups was superior to ...