A new family of biisoquinoline chelates

Four 8,8'- diaryl- substituted 3,3'-biisoquinoline ligands have been synthesized and characterized. The key feature of this new family of chelates is their endotopic but sterically nonhindering nature. All four ligands were made from a common 8-bromoisoquinolin-3-ol precursor; between three and twelve synthetic steps were necessary to obtain the products. The reported synthetic procedures allow for gram-scale production of these biisoquinolines. ((c) Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2007).