Landmarks in Organo-Transition Metal Chemistry / Profiles in Inorganic Chemistry (PDF)

Prologue.- A Biographical Sketch.- The Nineteenth Century: It is all but a Sequence of Accidental Discoveries.- Transition Metal Carbonyls: From Small Molecules to Giant Clusters.- A Scientific Revolution: The Discovery of the Sandwich Complexes.- One Deck More: The Chemical Big Mac.- The Binding of Ethene and its Congeners: Prototypical Metal p -Complexes.- Metal Carbenes and Carbynes: The Taming of Non-existent Molecules.- Metal Alkyls and Metal Aryls: It is the Ligands that Count.- From Roelen, Reppe and Ziegler to the Present-Day Heroes: Organometallics in Industry.- Transcending the Boundaries: Organometallics for Organic Synthesis.- Introducing Chirality: A Breakthrough in Homogeneous Catalysis.- Organometallics and the Future: Does it Remain an Adventure?- Epilogue.

As an undergraduate student, Helmut Werner worked for his Diploma Thesis with Franz Hein, one of the giants of coordination chemistry in Germany from 1920 to 1960, and obtained his Ph. D. in the laboratory of Ernst Otto Fischer, one of the great heros of organo-transition metal chemistry in the latter half of the twentieth century. He prepared the first borazine-metal complexes, isolated the chemical Big Mac, promoted the concept of metal basicity, investigated the chemistry of metalla-cumulenes and, most recently, discovered a new bonding mode for tertiary phosphines, arsines and stibines. He held academic positions at the Technical University of Munich, the University of Zürich and the University of Würzburg, and from 1990-2001 was the Chairman of an Interdisciplinary Research Unit in organometallic chemistry.

From the reviews:

“An account of major (and many minor) discoveries and aspects of organotransition metal chemistry from a personal and historical perspective. … this book being primarily of interest to advanced level students (undergraduate and graduate), faculty, and practicing chemists, particularly in the inorganic and, to a lesser extent, organic fields. It could be a useful and unique resource for courses in the inorganic and organometallic areas because of its historical and biographical information and perspectives. I found it well-written, interesting, and enjoyable reading.” (Kenneth M. Nicholas, Journal of Chemical Education, Vol. 86 (12), December, 2009)

"Landmarks in Organo-Transition Metal Chemistry – A Personal View … is a very informative and exciting account of the historical development of organo-transition-metal chemistry from the 19th century up to the present. … It is not only the comprehensive description … of organo-transition-metal compounds that makes this book so valuable for chemists and advanced students, but also the many references to original publications, the descriptive figures, and the scores of images … that make the book by Helmut Werner so valuable, worth reading, and unique." (Alexander Filippou, Angewandte Chemie, Vol. 48, 2009)

"In a book that is neither wholly text nor wholly biographical, the reader is taken on a journey through the history of organometallic chemistry. Necessarily focusing on some areas in which the author has personally conducted research, the book is full of fascinating insights into the development of one of the largest subdivisions of chemistry. Despite the wealth of content, the book is remarkably easy to read and emphasizes the rapid growth of the subject area and the influence it has had on chemistry, both in the past and continuing into the future." ("On Our Bookshelf" section, Nature Chemistry, Vol. 1, 2009)