A novel heteroditopic macrocyclic ligand system for selective coordination of two different transition metal ions has been obtained in the form of monometallic salen complexes of Ni II (LNi, 1) and uranyl (LUO 2 , 2). The system is characterized by the presence of a dianionic, tetradentate salen donor system (N 2 O 2 ) derived from cis-1,2-diaminocyclohexane and of a neutral, tridentate 2,6-bis(alkylthiomethyl)pyridine group (NS 2 ). The two binding sites are connected by two oxyethyl chains. The synthetic procedure involves the coupling of the disodium salt of 2,6-bis(mercaptomethyl)pyridine with two equivalents of 3-(2-bromoethoxy)-2-(2-propenyloxy)benzaldehyde. Removal of the protecting allyl groups from the reaction product (I) by palladium catalysis yields the ligand synthon 2,6-bis[2-(3-formyl-2-hydroxyphenyl)oxyethyl]thiomethylpyridine (II). The monometallic macrocyclic complexes 1 and 2, obtained by metal-templated synthesis from cis-1,2-diaminocyclohexane, ligson II, and the corresponding Ni II or