There has been a growing interest in the chemistry of carbonrich metal-containing systems, in particular those of metalcontaining polyynes. Examples include the transition-metal [1] trans-[Pt(C 6 F 5 )(PR 3 ) 2 ], [2] Fe(Cp*)(dppe), [3] Fe(Cp*)(CO) 2 , [4] Ru(Cp)(PPh 3 ) 2 , [5] Mn(dppe) 2 I, [6] Re(tBu 2bpy)(CO) 3 , [7] Au(PCy 3 ) [8] ). Some of them have recently been shown to display interesting luminescence behavior. [7,8] Despite platinum-containing polyynes being known, most of them are confined to platinum phosphane complexes, with corresponding studies on the nitrogen donor analogues unexplored. These, together with the numerous studies on the luminescence behavior of platinum(ii)-polypyridine systems, [9,10] in particular those of the platinum(ii)-terpyridyl complexes, [9f, 10] and our recent report on the novel solvatochromic properties of platinum(ii)-terpyridyl complexes [11] as well as our interest in luminescent carbon-rich molecular materials, [12] have prompted us to investigate the luminescence properties of the [Pt]-(C C) n -[Pt] system of various alkynyl chain lengths with platinum(ii)-terpyridyl groups as the transition-metal end-capped termini. Herein we report the synthesis, electronic absorption, photophysical properties, and structural characterization of a series of alkynyl-bridged dinuclear platinum(ii)-terpyridyl complexes, [Pt(tBu 3 -tpy)-(CC) n Pt(tBu 3 -tpy)](X) 2 (1-3; tBu 3 -tpy = 4,4',4''-tri-tertbutyl-2,2':6',2''-terpyridine). The bulky trisubstituted terpyridine ligand was chosen to eliminate the influence of Pt···Pt and p-p interactions on the luminescence behavior. The luminescence behavior together with the structure-property relationship of the complexes have been studied. Figure 1 depicts the structures of the complex cations of 1-3. In all cases, the platinum(ii) metal center adopts an