The study of intramolecular electron transfer in redox active dinuclear transition metal complexes, where redox active metal centers are linked by a hydrocarbon bridge is of fundamental importance and an area of contemporary research. [1] Though there are many reports on the role of the bridging ligand (BL) in tuning metal ± metal interactions in di/polynuclear metal complexes, [2] to date very little is known about the role of the BL when it is trapped in hydrophobic cyclodextrin (CD) cavity. [3] Spectroscopic and kinetic studies on supramolecular self assembly of [2]rotaxanes with symmetric/asymmetric threads, that is, hydrocarbon chains with identical bulky metal units as stoppers or cationic species as electric traps have been reported. [4] These studies exploit the phenomenon of non-covalent bonding interaction between a-or b-CD and hydrocarbon spacers. However, no such supramolecular assembly using metal units in different oxidation states as stoppers has been reported. This approach can enable us to investigate the effect that inclusion of BLs in the CD cavity has and thus the effect of nonbonding interactions on intervalence charge transfer (IVCT) and metal ± metal interactions. We report herein the syntheses of [2]rotaxane complexes having transition metal units with different oxidation states as stoppers, b-CD as a cyclic molecular head, and 4,4-bipyridyl derivatives as the BL. Also, the effect of the inclusion of the BL in the hydrophobic CD cavity is discussed.The complexes [RuL(H 2 O)] (L is Hedta 3À ; H 4 edta is ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid) and Na 3 [Fe(CN) 5 (H 2 O)] produced by the rapid aquation of K[RuLCl]´2 H 2 O and Na 3 [Fe(CN) 5 (NH 3 )]´3 H 2 O, respectively, react with N-donor heterocycles through a facile aqua-substitution pathway on the stopped-flow time scale to form the corresponding metal complex in near quantitative yield. [4±6] We have taken advantage of the aqua-substitution reaction of these two complexes, along with the great tendency of b-CD to bind 1,2bis(4-pyridyl)ethane (bpe) and 1,3-bis(4-pyridyl)propane (bpp), [6] to synthesize [2]rotaxane complexes, 5 and 6, respectively by treating the semirotaxane complexes 3 and 4 with [Fe(CN) 5 (H 2 O)] 3À (Scheme 1). In the UV/Vis spectra Scheme 1. complexes 5 and 6 show a characteristic broad absorbance at % 1000 nm both in aqueous solution and the solid state, this absorbance is not seen for the complexes 1 ± 4. Proposed formulations for the isolated inclusion complexes 3 ± 6 match nicely with the analytical data. [7] The formation in solution of semirotaxane complexes of bpe and bpp with b-CD, 3, and 4, can also be demonstrated in the 1 H NMR spectra by inspection of the complexation-induced shift of the resonance signals for the guest molecule (Figure 1). The [2]rotaxane Figure 1. 1 H NMR spectra (200 MHz) of A) bpp in D 2 O; B) (bpp´b-CD) and excess b-CD in D 2 O; C) (LRubpp´b-CD, bpp´b-CD) and excess b-CD in D 2 O. [bpp] 2.0 Â 10 À3 m, [b-CD] 1.6 Â 10 À2 m, and [RuL(H 2 O)] 6.66 Â 10 À4 m. Spectral features arising from...