Optically active coordination compounds discovery

Kauffinan, G. B. "The Discovery of Optically Active Coordination Compounds—A Milestone in Stereochemistry, Isis 1975.65,38. 

Cince Werner s early paper 19, 20) on the optical activity he postulated and discovered in coordination compounds, there have been several discoveries closely related to this work. One of these is the observation by Pfeiffer and Quehl 15) that the optical rotation of an aqueous solution containing an optically active substance (e.g., ammonium d-a-bromocamphor-TT-sulfonate, later referred to as the optically active en-vironment O be changed by adding solutions of racemic mixtures of certain coordination compounds (e.g., D,L-[Zn(o-phen)3](N03)2, where o-phen = or /io-phenanthroline). This effect has been referred to as the Tfeiffer effect in honor of its discoverer 3, 4) who first observed it during an attempted resolution of the racemic complex mentioned above 15). 

Werner s syntheses of [Co(NH3)4Cl2] and discovery of optically active, carbon-free, coordination compounds did not convince all chemists, even when chain theory could not... 

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