ORGANIC DERIVATIVES OF METALS AND 



METALLOIDS 



By PROF. GILBERT T. MORGAN, D.Sc, F.I.C., A.R.C.S. 



Royal College of Science for Ireland, Dublin 



Taken in its widest sense, the title of this paper x embraces a 

 very large and miscellaneous series of substances divisible into 

 several distinct classes. For since carbon is the essential element 

 of all organic compounds, there should fall within the category 

 of organic derivatives of metals and metalloids all those combina- 

 tions which contain carbon in direct association with these 

 elements. The scope of the present paper is, however, restricted 

 to a consideration of the compounds containing not merely 

 carbon but the carbon of hydrocarbon radicals. This restriction 

 at once excludes two very important classes of substances which 

 would otherwise deserve special reference. The first of these 

 classes is that of the metallic carbides, an outcome of Moissan's 

 famous researches on the electric furnace, of which calcium 

 carbide is the best known example. The other class includes 

 the metallic carbonyl derivatives which were discovered by 

 Mond, who made use of the remarkable properties of nickel 

 carbonyl in the technical production of pure nickel. 



The substances discussed in the sequel contain a metal or 

 metalloid combined with one or more hydrocarbon radicals, and 

 for the purpose of this paper the hydrocarbons themselves, com- 

 pounds consisting entirely of carbon and hydrogen, may be 

 illustrated by the following two types : the paraffins with 

 methane CH 4 , ethane C 2 H a , and propane C 3 H 8 , as simplest 

 members, and the aromatic hydrocarbons represented by 

 benzene C 6 H 6 . 



The paraffinoid or alkyl radicals are methyl CH 3 , ethyl C 2 H 5 , 

 propyl C3H5, and generally C n H 2n+ i, obtained by removing one 

 hydrogen from the paraffin hydrocarbon itself. These radicals 



1 This paper formed the subject of the opening address to the Dublin University 

 Experimental Science Association delivered on November 11, 1913. 



690 



