Synthesis, resolution, and absolute configuration of chiral 4,4'-bipyridines.

A chiral polyhalogenated 4,4'-bipyridine derivative is described allowing an easy access to a new family of chiral 4,4'-bipyridines by site-selective cross-coupling reactions. The absolute configurations of all the HPLC separated enantiomers were determined by X-ray diffraction and electronic circular dichroism coupled with time-dependent density functional theory calculations.