Axiallychiral bipyridine N,N′-dioxides (Lewis basic organocatalysts) are easily accessible in three steps from commercially available material. The key step of this reaction sequence is cobalt-catalyzed heterocyclotrimerization of 1-pyridyl-1,7-octadiynes with nitriles. Our effort was focused on the synthesis of unsymmetrically substituted bipyridines. The scope of the cyclotrimerization reaction