Results and DiscussionCharacterizat

Results and Discussion
Characterization of tile Ligand
Our interest in this ligand, which to our
knowledge has not been previously reported in
the literature. stemmed in Dart from our earlier
involvement with ligands containing imidazoline
rings (7) ~hichw ere obtained by simple condensation
of dinitriles lvith dianlines, e.g.,
ethylenediamine, A simple extension of this
reaction to the trinitrile, nitrilotriacetonitrile, led
to the title ligand vdhich appeared to have theright geometrical features to be a stereochemically
selective 'tripod' ligand capable of
forcing metal ions to adopt predominantly one
stereochemistry, i.e., a distorted trigonal bipyramid.