2. Alkene substitution

2.1 Historic first step: ethylene

In 1828, Zeise obtained a platinum compound that was formulated in a dualistic form for a very long time due to the lack of structural information: PtCl ₂ · KCl · C ₂ H ₄ . It took around 130 years for its structure to be established by X-ray diffraction. It is a potassium salt of the complex anion [PtCl ₃ (C ₂ H ₄ )] ^- in which the four PtCl ₃ atoms are in the same plane perpendicular to the...