BULLETIN FOR THE HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY
Volume 49, 2024
Rasmussen, Seth C., “Edward Frankland and the Birth of Organometallics,” Bull. Hist. Chem., 2024, 49, 111-121.
Abstract/Description: Organometallic chemistry, formally defined as the chemistry of compounds containing metal-carbon bonds, lies at the interface of inorganic and organic chemistry and has developed into a major subdiscipline of chemistry with widespread applications in catalysis and chemical synthesis. Such compounds date back to 1827 with a platinum ethylene species commonly known as Zeise's salt. However, it was in the mid-1800s that efforts of the English chemist Edward Frankland (1825-1899, resulted in the development of the first family of such compounds, metal-alkyls of zinc, mercury, and various main group elements. In the process, Frankland also coined the term organometallic to describe these species and he was the first to put into practice the process of transmetalation, a fundamental reaction of modern organometallic chemistry. As such, there is considerable justification for labeling Frankland as the father of organometallic chemistry.