General Papers ARKIVOC 2007 (xiv) 257-265 ISSN 1551-7012 Page 257 © ARKAT USA, Inc. Synthesis of new potential ligands for metal complex wires: 2-pyridinmethyl-{4-[(2-pyridinylmethylimino)-methyl]- benzylidene}amines Taibi Ben Hadda c,* , Maria Daoudi a , Sanae Aloui a , Najib Ben Larbi a , Abdelali Kerbal, a and Abraham Jalbout b a Laboratoire de Chimie Organique, Faculté des Sciences Dhar El Mehraz, Fès, Morocco b Department of Chemistry, The University of Arizona Tucson, AZ 85721 USA c Laboratoire d’Activation Moléculaire, Faculté des Sciences, 60000 Oujda, Morocc E-mail: tbenhadda@yahoo.fr Abstract Two new simple bis-bidentate ligands N-(2-pyridinylmethyl)-N-[(E)-(4-[(2- pyridinylmethyl)imino]methylphenyl)methylidene]amine and 4-methyl-N-[(E)-(4-[(4-methyl-2- pyridinyl)imino]methylphenyl)methylidene]-2-pyridinamine were prepared in good yield by condensation of readily available and inexpensive chemicals; 2-amino-methylpyridine 2 or 2- amino-para-methyl-pyridine 4 with terephthaladehyde 1. The synthesis and characterization of these two polydentate ligands are described. The thermo-stability of both compounds 3 and 5 has been calculated. Keywords. Metal wires, bis-bidentate ligands, theoretical calculations, AM1, thermochemistry Introduction Polymetallic complexes with suitable polydentate bridging ligands can be useful models of molecular wires. 1 By reference to macroscopic electrical devices, the concept of a wire is fundamentally based on intramolecular electron transfer that occurs in its simplest form in mixed-valence complexes. Bimetallic metal complexes with suitable bridging ligands can be useful models to study electronic interaction or electron transfer rates with distance including in biological electron transfer. 1 Another interesting use of long distance coordinating ligands is the electronic communication between remote metallic atoms and the development of molecular switches, i.e. molecules able to promote or block intramolecular electron transfer. 1 This development clearly requires the mastering of long-distance electron transfer (over 15-20 A). In search of new terminal coordinating groups to study intramolecular electron transfers, we have considered the case of polydendate pyrazole ligands. Such compounds are particularly