Metal-Terpyridine Complexes in Catalytic Application – A Spotlight on the Last Decade

Abstract

2,2′:6′,2′′-Terpyridine (tpy) and its derivatives represent highly versatile ligands for the complexation of transition metal ions. Today, such complexes are employed in a highly diverse fashion – including inter alia materials science, opto-electronics, pharmacy or catalysis. Concerning the latter one, a vast development has led to new or improved applications in both “conventional” organic chemistry (i. e., catalysis of functional-group interconversions, CH-activation or cross-coupling reactions) as well as energy-related applications (e. g., CO2 reduction, artificial photosynthesis, dye degradation). In this respect, not only homogeneous catalysts (i. e., molecular complexes) but also heterogeneous and recyclable ones have moved to the focus of interest. These heterogeneous structures include 1D metallopolymers, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), organic-inorganic hybrids and bio-inspired catalysts. We gave a first overview on this topic already in 2011; in here, the methods and implementations established within the last decade as well as relevant contributions from earlier works are presented and discussed.