Ernst Otto Fischer

Ernst Otto Fischer was a German chemist. In 1952 he clarified the novel structure of ferrocene, which had been discovered a year earlier, and synthesized dibenzene chromium a few years later. Until Fischer's discovery, the chemistry of complexes of metals with hydrocarbons played only a minor role. Until then, publications on organometallic compounds mostly included work on alkyl compounds of metals from the main groups, such as kakodyl or Grignard compounds, as well as on carbon monoxide compounds from subgroup metals, the metal carbonyls. Even though coordination complexes such as the Zeise salt had been known for a long time, Fischer's work is considered a milestone and the beginning of modern organometallic chemistry. The importance of the class of substances derived from ferrocene investigated by Fischer was also reflected in its scope: in 1991, over 80% of the organometallic complexes known at the time were cyclopentadienyl complexes, including ferrocene and its derivatives.