Investigations of transition-metal complexes of the planar tridentate ligand 2, 2': 6', 2"- terpyridine (1) and its substituted derivatives (2a-d) are severely limited by the tedious synthesis of this class of compounds. lJ At present, the shortest synthesis of terpyridine involves a two-pot reaction sequence that achieves an overall yield of about 45%. 3 Somewhat larger quantities of terpyridine are available via an alternative four-step pro~ ...
