Organometallic Chemistry

by Jon McCleverty

Structure of "bucky ferrocene" presented by plenary lecturer Eiichi Nakamura (University of Tokyo, Japan) in his lecture titled "The chemistry of h-Fullerene Metal Complexes."

The 20th International Conference on Organometallic Chemistry was held on the island of Corfu from 7 to 12 July 2002. The conference was so well attended—with more than 700 participants—that the original site, based in a traditional but modernized Corfiot conference village, proved too small and operations had to be moved to a large beach hotel. Despite this obvious complication, with its attendant transportation difficulties, the local organizers, coordinated by Professor K. Screttas, are to be congratulated for maintaining calm and good order, effective information, and friendly hospitality, while providing an excellent conference venue.

This international meeting is biennial, and in keeping with its long tradition, covers all of metal chemistry in the organometallic context. There were six plenary lectures, nearly 40 session lectures, and approximately 120 other oral contributions, supplemented by 430 posters. The chemistry covered areas as diverse as nanotechnology, homogeneous catalysis, optical properties, computational chemistry, and were directed in equal measure at fundamental and applied problems. This conference complements very well an IUPAC–sponsored conference held in Taipei in 2001 that covered organometallic chemistry directed towards organic synthesis.

[{Fe(C5H4)2}3(Ga·NC5H5)2] The picture shows three ferrocene-1,1’- diyl units which are linked by two gallium centers to give a carousel structure. The donor-free skeleton is a potential building block in supramolecular chemistry . Presented by plenary lecturer Peter Jutzi (University of Bielefeld, Germany).

Organometallic chemistry is now thought by some to be a relatively mature field. However, the combination of organic fragments with metals still continues to provide remarkable new compounds, and materials with remarkable chemical and physical properties. So many of the contributions revealed exciting and unexpected results, with accompanying challenges to accepted theory and potential for new applications. What is gratifying is the attendance of a large number of young chemists—proof that the field continues to attract among the best of chemical talent.

The advisors and organizers of this meeting did a fine job in putting together such an excellent program. The 20th ICOMC will long be remembered as a stimulating and informative conference set in a delightful location.

A selection of lectures from the conference will appear in Pure and Applied Chemistry, with Professor Screttas acting as conference editor.

Jon McCleverty is a professor at the University of Bristol, United Kingdom. As an IUPAC fellow, he also acted as IUPAC representative at the 20th ICOMC.