Approaches to photo activated cytotoxins

The synthesis and coordination chemistry of elevenbridging ligands, eight of which are new compounds,are described. These ligands are all based on thetridentate terpyridyl system. The other metal ionbinding sites of these ligands containpyridine/bipyridine/pyrazole rings oramine/azamacrocycles domains. In these ligands, thetwo metal ion binding sites are differentiated by thenumber of atoms in each site, the configuration ofthe binding site or the types of donor atom that arepresent. Many of the complexes synthesized aremono-ruthenium(II) complexes where Ru(II) ions aresituated in the terpyridyl sites of the ligands.These include heteroleptic Ru(II) complexes of thetype [Ru(ttp)(L)]2+, where ttp is4'-(p-tolyl)-2,2':6',2"-terpyridine, and L is thebridging ligand. A combination of NMR spectroscopy,ESI-MS, UV-vis spectroscopy, elemental analysis, andX-ray crystallography has been used to characterizethe ligands and their complexes. The crystalstructures of one new ligand and sixteen complexesare described.