Alfred Werner's Coordination Chemistry: New Insights from Old Samples

摘要

Alfred Werner (1866-1919) is the undisputed founder of coordination chemistry, but many years passed before his stereochemical insights were accepted. Only after he proved conclusively that metal complexes can be chiral did his model become accepted and earn him the nickname "Inorganic Kekule" and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1913. But it took more than ten years from the time he predicted chirality in coordination compounds for his group to succeed in separating enantiomers. During the 1980s, reports appeared stating that some of the compounds originally prepared by one of Werner's students, Edith Humphrey, resolve spontaneously into the enantiomers during crystallization. This led to the claim that Werner could have proven his theory much earlier, if he had only tested a single crystal for optical activity. However, our re-examination of the original samples, which are stored in the Werner collection at the University of Zurich, and perusal of the corresponding doctoral theses of Werner's students, reveals new aspects of conglomerate crystallization in the old samples.