Alfred Werner

Alfred Werner
Werner circa 1915
Born	12 December 1866 Mulhouse, Haut-Rhin, Alsace, France
Died	15 November 1919(1919-11-15) (aged 52) Zürich, Switzerland
Nationality	Swiss (from 1895) French
Alma mater	University of Zurich ETH Zurich
Known for	Configuration of transition metal complexes
Spouse	Emma Werner[1]
Awards	Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1913)
Scientific career
Fields	Inorganic chemistry
Institutions	University of Zurich
Doctoral advisor	Arthur Rudolf Hantzsch, Marcellin Berthelot[citation needed]

Alfred Werner (12 December 1866 – 15 November 1919) was a Swiss chemist who was a student at ETH Zurich and a professor at the University of Zurich. He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1913 for proposing the octahedral configuration of transition metal complexes. Werner developed the basis for modern coordination chemistry. He was the first inorganic chemist to win the Nobel Prize, and the only one prior to 1973.^[2]

Werner was born in 1866 in Mulhouse, Alsace (which was then part of France, but which was annexed by Germany in 1871). He was raised as Roman Catholic.^[3] He was the fourth and last child of Jean-Adam Werner, a foundry worker, and his second wife, Salomé Jeannette Werner, who originated from a wealthy family.^[3] He went to Switzerland to study chemistry at the Swiss Federal Institute (polytechnikum) in Zurich. Still, since this institute was not empowered to grant doctorates until 1909, Werner received a doctorate formally from the University of Zürich in 1890.^[3] After postdoctoral study in Paris, he returned to the Swiss Federal Institute to teach (1892). In 1893 he moved to the University of Zurich, where he became a professor in 1895. In 1894 he became a Swiss citizen.^[3]

In his last year, he suffered from a general, progressive, degenerative arteriosclerosis, especially of the brain, aggravated by years of excessive drinking and overwork. He died in a psychiatric hospital in Zürich.^[3]

Werner died on 15 November 1919 of arteriosclerosis in Zürich at the age of 52.

In 1893, Werner was the first to propose correct structures for coordination compounds containing complex ions, in which a central transition metal atom is surrounded by neutral or anionic ligands.

For example, it was known that cobalt forms a "complex" hexamine cobalt (III) chloride, with formula CoCl₃•6NH₃, but the nature of the association indicated by the dot was mysterious. Werner proposed the structure [Co(NH₃)₆]Cl₃, with the Co³⁺ ion surrounded by six NH₃ at the vertices of an octahedron. The three Cl⁻ are dissociated as free ions, which Werner confirmed by measuring the conductivity of the compound in an aqueous solution, and also by chloride anion analysis using precipitation with silver nitrate. Later, magnetic susceptibility analysis was also used to confirm Werner's proposal for the chemical nature of CoCl₃•6NH₃.

For complexes with more than one type of ligand, Werner succeeded in explaining the number of isomers observed. For example, he explained the existence of two tetramine isomers, "Co(NH₃)₄Cl₃", one green and one purple. Werner proposed that these are two geometric isomers of formula [Co(NH₃)₄Cl₂]Cl, with one Cl⁻ ion dissociated as confirmed by conductivity measurements. The Co atom is surrounded by four NH₃ and two Cl ligands at the vertices of an octahedron. The green isomer is "trans" with the two Cl ligands at opposite vertices, and the purple is "cis" with the two Cl at adjacent vertices.

Werner also prepared complexes with optical isomers, and in 1914 he reported the first synthetic chiral compound lacking carbon, known as hexol with formula [Co(Co(NH₃)₄(OH)₂)₃]Br₆.

Before Werner, chemists defined the valence of an element as the number of its bonds without distinguishing different types of bonds. However, in complexes such as [Co(NH₃)₆]Cl₃ for example, Werner considered that the Co-Cl bonds correspond to a "primary" valence of 3 at long distance, while the Co-NH₃ bonds which correspond to a "secondary" or weaker valence of 6 at shorter length. This secondary valence of 6 he referred to as the coordination number which he defined as the number of molecules (here of NH₃) directly linked to the central metal atom. In other complexes, he found coordination numbers of 4 or 8.

On these views, and other similar views, in 1904 Richard Abegg formulated what is now known as Abegg's rule which states that the difference between the maximum positive and negative valence of an element is frequently eight. This rule was used later in 1916 when Gilbert N. Lewis formulated the "octet rule" in his cubical atom theory.

In modern terminology, Werner's primary valence corresponds to the oxidation state, and his secondary valence is called coordination number. The Co-Cl bonds (in the above example) are now classed as ionic, and each Co-N bond is a coordinate covalent bond between the Lewis acid Co³⁺ and the Lewis base NH₃.

• Lehrbuch der Stereochemie . Fischer, Jena 1904 Digital edition by the University and State Library Düsseldorf

• Alfred Werner on Nobelprize.org including the Nobel Lecture, 11 December 1913 On the Constitution and Configuration of Higher-Order Compounds
• The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1913 - short article about his work on the linkage of atoms in molecules by which he has thrown new light on earlier investigations and opened up new fields of research, especially in inorganic chemistry.