The Basic Principles of Coordination Chemistry

Abstract

The manifold and painstaking researches into inorganic coordination chemistry executed over the past century by such scientists as Alfred Werner, Jannik Bjerrum, Sophus Jørgensen and Ido Leden, and by descendants of their research schools, have yielded adequate principles to found our bio-inorganic courses upon since the inception of the subject in the mid-1950s and a flourishing of interest in the early 1970s. Many of these principles are outlined in the following paragraphs, the choice being made because the principle is fundamental to coordination chemistry and/or because a subsequent experiment illustrates a concept involving the principle. The ensuing abstract is to refresh the memories of inorganic chemists and to introduce biochemistry and medical students to these principles.