Di‐o‐Quinones Bearing an Additional Coordination Function in <i>m</i> ‐Dioxyarylene Linker as Potential Building Blocks for Coordination‐Driven Self‐Assembly

Abstract Bis‐dioxolene ligands 1 – 5 , linked by m ‐dioxyarylene spacers were synthesized. Such ligands are considered as potential building blocks for coordination‐driven design of cage‐like units by self‐assembly mechanism. The peculiarity of new species is in presence of additional functional group in the linker such as pyridinyl ( 1 ), ester ( 2 – 3 ), and carboxyl ( 4 – 5 ) that add the possibilities for ordering modes during the design of coordination polymers. Di‐ o ‐quinones 1–2 were synthesized by reaction of 4‐chloro‐3,6‐di‐ tert ‐butyl‐ o ‐quinone (4‐Cl‐3,6‐Q) with pyridine‐3,5‐diol and methyl 3,5‐dixydroxybenzoate, respectively, in presence of base. The preparation of di‐o‐quinone 5 turned to be a multistage process where di‐catechols 3–4 were isolated as intermediates.