Organometallic chemistry

Organometallic chemistry is the study of chemical compounds containing bonds between carbon and a metal. Organometallic chemistry combines aspects of inorganic chemistry and organic chemistry. Organometallic compounds are distinguished by the prefix "organo-". The organopalladium compounds are an example of this. Typical organometallic compounds are the organozinc compounds ClZnCH2C(=0)OEt and chloro(ethoxycarbonylmethyl)zinc and the organocuprates Li and lithium dimethylcuprate, the organomagnesium compounds MeMgI, iodo(methyl)magnesium and diethylmagnesium which are Grignard reagents and organolithium compounds such as n-butyllithium.

Organometallic chemistry timeline

• 1760 Louis Claude Cadet de Gassicourt investigates inks based on Cobalt salts and isolates Cacodyl from cobalt mineral containing arsenic
• 1827 Zeise?s salt is the first platinum / olefin complex
• 1863 Charles Friedel and James Crafts prepare organochlorosilanes
• 1890 Ludwig Mond discovers Nickel carbonyl
• 1899 introduction of Grignard reagent
• 1900 Paul Sabatier works on hydrogenation organic compounds with metal catalysts. Hydrogenation of fats kicks off advances in food industry, see margarine
• 1912 Nobel prize Victor Grignard and Paul Sabatier
• 1930 Henry Gilman works on lithium cuprates, see Gilman reagent
• 1963 Nobel prize for Karl Ziegler and Giulio Natta on Ziegler-Natta catalyst
• 1968 Heck reaction
• 1973 Nobel prize Geoffrey Wilkinson and Ernst Otto Fischer on sandwich compounds