“…The ligand di-2-pyridylmethanone (dpk) and its oxime and hydrazone derivatives are of interest, in part because of their physicochemical properties, reactivity patterns, and applications in many areas, including catalysis, sensors, pharmaceuticals, microelectronics and others (Bernhardt et al, 2003;Camel, 2003;Crowder et al, 2004;Kepert et al, 2004;Kumagai et al, 2003;Sreekanth et al, 2003;Swearingen et al, 2002;Terra et al, 2002). Upon coordination to a variety of metal atoms, dpk undergoes facile hydrolysis to form a gem-diol, which allows for the expansion of monodentate (di-2pyridylmethanone-1 N or -1 O) or bidentate (di-2-pyridylmethanone-2 N,N H ) coordination of dpk to tridentate [hydroxytris(2-pyridyl)methanolato-3 N,O,N H ; Bakir & McKenzie, 1997;Gerber et al, 1995] and tetradentate [tris(2pyridyl)methandiolato-4 N,O,N H ,O] binding (Papaefstathiou et al, 2002). We have been interested in the chemistry of polypyridyl-like compounds of the type (C 5 H 4 N) 2 X, where X = CO, C = NÐOH or C = NHÐNR, and have reported on the synthesis and spectroscopic, electrochemical and structural properties of a series of dpk derivatives and their metal complexes (Bakir & McKenzie, 1997;Bakir, Brown & Johnson, 2004;Bakir, Hassan et al, 2004;Bakir & Brown, 2003;Bakir et al, 2003;Bakir, 2002a,b,c;Bakir, 2001a,b).…”