Chiral hexahalogenated 4,4'-bipyridines

The preparation of 27 isomers of chiral hexahalogeno-4,4'-bipyridines by means of two complementary methods is described. The first one is convergent and based on the LDA-induced 4,4'-dimerization of trihalopyridines, whereas the second method is divergent and achieved through regioselective halogenation reactions of 4,4'-bipyridine-2,2'-diones. Iodine in 2,2'-positions of the 4,4'-bipyridines was introduced by a copper-catalyzed Finkelstein reaction (Buchwald procedure) performed on 2,2'-dibromo derivatives. Selected compounds of this new family of atropisomeric 4,4'-bipyridines were enantioseparated by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) on chiral stationary phases and the absolute configurations of the separated enantiomers were assigned by using X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. The latter revealed that various halogen bond types are responsible for crystal cohesion.