Optical activity and Alfred Werner's coordination chemistry
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Updated: Jun 8, 2026

Excitonic Hamiltonians for Calculating Optical Absorption Spectra and Optoelectronic Properties of Molecular Aggregates and Solids
Published on: May 27, 2020
Karl-Heinz Ernst1, Heinz Berke
1Nanoscale Materials Science, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research, Dübendorf, Switzerland. karl-heinz.ernst@empa.ch
Abstract:
It is widely accepted, that Pasteur's seminal discovery of the opposite optical activity of ammonium sodium tartrate enantiomorphs in solution gave the spark to organic stereochemistry and led to the development of the tetrahedron model by van't Hoff and Le Bel. The proof that chirality is inherently connected to octahedral coordination chemistry fostered greatly Werner's spatial views of metal complexes and his coordination theory. The actual proof of principle was established via separation of diastereomeric camphor sulfonate salts of racemic metal complexes.
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