Platinum Metals Review - Volume 8, Issue 1, 1964

Although platinum provided the first known example of an organometallic complex of a transition metal, intensive studies of compounds of the platinum metals with metal to carbon bonds have come mainly during the past decade. The main classes of stable organo-complexes such as those having olefins, acetylenes, alkyl or cyclopentadienyl groups as ligands are discussed. The study of such stable complexes should assist in the elucidation of the mechanism of various reactions which are catalysed by platinum metal salts or complexes.

The name of Seebeck is indissolubly associated with the discovery of thermoelectricity and the thermocouple. But how did Seebeck^’s researches fit into the general background of contemporary scientific work, and how did they lead on to the development of the modern thermocouple pyrometer? This article outlines the early history of the couple up to the time when it became accepted as an accurate and reliable means of measuring high temperatures.