Catalysis with complexes containing stereogenic metal centers.

Alfred Werner, one of the founders of the Swiss Chemical Society and its first president and the first Nobel Prizewinner for Chemistry in Switzerland, established the stereochemistry of coordination complexes. As an important element in the verification of his hypothesis he demonstrated the existence of two enantiomeric forms of [Co(ethylenediamine)3][Cl3]. The present article briefly examines the question of the use in asymmetric catalysis of catalysts possessing a stereogenic metal center.