Overcoming regioselectivity issues inherent in bis-Tröger's base preparation

[structure: see text] Bis-Tröger's base derivatives are a new family of molecular tweezers. A major drawback to their study is a lack of commercially available precursors, ortho-nitrocarboxylic acids. A reverse synthetic strategy starting from known dinitrodicarboxylic acids, which circumvents this problem, is presented. Via this methodology regioisomeric bis-TB derivatives can be prepared selectively, using only common aromatic amines that are typically commercially available.