Alfred Werner

Werner, Alfred 

Born Dec. 12, 1866, in Mulhouse, Alsace; died Nov. 15, 1919, in Zürich. Swiss inorganic chemist. One of the founders of the chemistry of complex compounds.

Werner graduated from a higher polytechnical school in Zürich in 1889, and in 1890 he defended his doctoral dissertation On the Spatial Distribution of Atoms in Nitrogen Compounds. In 1893 he became a professor at the University of Zürich. He published a work on chemical affinity and valence in 1891 and his first work on the structure of inorganic compounds in 1893. Werner decisively rejected the generally accepted conceptions of a stable and directed valence that were used to interpret the structure of inorganic compounds and proposed a “coordination theory” of complex compounds. He devoted his subsequent work to the substantiation and development of this theory. Werner synthesized numerous compounds. He systematized them, as well as all the compounds known up to his time, and worked out experimental methods for demonstrating their structures. Werner’s conception of internally complex compounds helped to elucidate the structure of many organic substances (chlorophyll, hemoglobin, and others).

Werner’s coordination theory has been applied extensively in other fields of knowledge and forms the foundation of the chemistry of complex compounds. He received a Nobel Prize in 1913.

WORKS

In Russian translation:
Novye vozzreniia v oblasti neorganicheskoi khimii, 5th ed. Leningrad, 1936.

REFERENCES

Chugaev, L. A. “Professor Al’fred Veraer.” In his book Izbr. trudy, vol. 3. Moscow, 1962.
Skanavi-Grigor’eva, M. S. “Al’fred Verner.” Uspekhi khimii, 1945, vol. 14, issue 4.
Karrer, P. “Alfred Werner.” Helvetica chimica acta, 1920, vol. 3, p. 196.