Synthesis of an Fe(terpy-cage) 2 dumbbell.

An azide masked amine is used to obtain a cage of lower symmetry that possess one terpy-group in an exo -position. This group can coordinate to iron(ii), yielding selectively an easy to purify Fe(terpy-cage) 2 dumbbell. The dumbbell can also be obtained in a one pot reaction, which proceeded without isolation of the exo -functionalized cage.