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Organometallic Compounds
Organometallic compounds have at least one carbon to metal bond, according to most definitions. This bond can be either a direct carbon to metal bond ( σ bond or sigma bond) or a metal complex bond ( π bond or pi bond). Compounds containing metal to hydrogen bonds as well as some compounds containing nonmetallic ( metalloid ) elements bonded to carbon are sometimes included in this class of compounds. Some common properties of organometallic compounds are relatively low melting points, insolubility in water, solubility in ether and related solvents, toxicity, oxidizability, and high reactivity.
An example of an organometallic compound of importance years ago is tetraethyllead (Et 4 4Pb) which is an antiknock agent for gasoline. It is presently banned from use in the United States.
The first metal complex identified as an organometallic compound was a salt, K(C 2 H 4 )PtCl 3 , obtained from reaction of ethylene with platinum (II) chloride by William Zeise in 1825. It was not until much later (1951–1952) that the correct structure of Zeise's compound (see Figure 1) was reported in connection with the structure of a metallocene compound known as ferrocene (see Figure 2).

Figure 1. Anion of Zeise's compound

Figure 2. Ferrocene
Preparation of ferrocene was reported at about the same time by two research groups, and a sandwich structure was proposed, based on ferrocene's physical properties (Kauffman, pp. 185–186). The sandwich structure was confirmed by x-ray diffraction studies. Since then, other metallocenes composed of other metals and other carbon ring molecules, such as dibenzenechromium (see Figure 3) and uranocene (see Figure 4), have been prepared.
Possibly the first scientist to synthesize an organometallic compound was Edward Frankland, who prepared diethylzinc by reaction of ethyl iodide with zinc metal in 1849 (Thayer 1969b, pp. 764–765).
2 CH 3 CH 2 I + 2 Zn → CH 3 CH 2 ZnCH 2 CH 3 + ZnI 2
In organometallic...