Werner, Alfred relationship

Read had earlier obtained his Ph.D. with Alfred Werner at the University of Zurich. Werner received the 1913 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his extension of chirality to metallic compounds. Strictly speaking, there were six carbons in the cobalt compound whose resolution was reported in 1911. However, the molecule s chirality was due to the spatial relationship about the hexacoordinate cobalt not to the carbons. Werner s collaborator in this revolutionary resolution— John Read. ... 

The nature and properties of metal complexes have been the subject of important research for many years and continue to intrigue some of the world s best chemists. One of the early Nobel prizes was awarded to Alfred Werner in 1913 for developing the basic concepts of coordination chemistry. The 1983 Nobel prize in chemistry was awarded to Henry Taube of Stanford University for his pioneering research on the mechanisms of inorganic oxidation-reduction reactions. He related rates of both substitution and redox reactions of metal complexes to the electronic structures of the metals, and made extensive experimental studies to test and support these relationships. His contributions are the basis for several sections in Chapter 6 and his concept of inner- and outer-sphere electron transfer is used by scientists worldwide. 

Many pigments and dyes of historical interest exhibit the capability of forming Werner-type coordination complexes. The relationships between the structures and color characteristics of these colorants are reviewed in this paper, with particular attention to the work of Paul Pfeiffer, a student and long-time assistant of Alfred Werner s who did extensive work in the characterization and application of Werner s coordination theory to alizarin-related dyes. 

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