Engineering Chemistry

14

COORDINATION CHEMISTRY

14.1 INTRODUCTION

Alfred Werner, a Swiss chemist and the founder of coordination chemistry, won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1913 for his research into the structure of coordination compounds. Prior to him, the concepts of valence bonding and geometry in metal complexes were confusing. He revolutionised the fields of inorganic chemistry and stereochemistry and found applications in many fields such as organic chemistry, analytical chemistry, biochemistry, geochemistry and mineralogy. He proved that stereochemistry is not limited to organic chemistry but is a general phenomenon.

Coordination chemistry is the study of a class of compounds formed by metals. Coordination compound can be explained by the following example: ...