Chebude, Yonas (PhD)Bedada, Hailu2018-06-202023-11-092018-06-202023-11-092010-06http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/12345678/19311,10-phenanthroline-5,6-dione (phendione) and its derivatives have wide applications in the preparation of mono, bi and polynuclear complexes. It is the main starting material for the synthesis of materials having interesting optical and electrical properties. Some of them inhibit the growth of pathogenic fungous, typical material for hole blocking (HBL) and hole-blocking electron transporting layer (HBTEL) in phosphorescent organic light emitting diode. The others have medicinal and biological values. In this research, to extend the wide applications of metal complexes derived from phendione, nickel(II) and zinc(II) complexes were synthesized by template method from phendione and pphenylenediamine in 2:1:2 ratio. Zn(II) complex was characterized using 1H NMR, 13C NMR, D2O exchange NMR, UV-Vis and other analytical methods. On the other hand, Ni(II) complex was characterized by atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS), chloride ion test, molar conductivity and magnetic susceptibility measurement. The AAS data reveals 2:1 ligand to metal ratio for Zn(II) complex, and 1:1 ligand to metal ratio for Ni(II). Molar conductivity shows Ni(II) complex is an electrolyte while Zn(II) complex is a non-electrolyte. The molar magnetic susceptibility of Ni(II) complex is about 2.72 BM which indicates the complex has distorted octahedral geometry around the metal center. From NMR spectral analysis and results, Zn(II) complex has also distorted octahedral geometry in which the ligand binds to the metals through NN’ of 1,10-phenanthroline- 5,6-dione. Key words: 1,10-phenanthroline-5,6-dione, p-phenylenediamine, template method, nickel(II) complex and Zn(II) complex.en1;10-phenanthroline-5;6-dione; p-phenylenediamine; template method; nickel(II) complex and Zn(II) complex.Thesis