Organozirconium compounds are organometallic compounds containing a carbon to zirconium chemical bond. Organozirconium chemistry is the corresponding science exploring properties, structure and reactivity of these compounds. In general organozirconium compounds are stable and non-toxic. They are used organic chemistry as an intermediate in the synthesis of chemical compounds and share characteristics with organotitanium compounds also a Group 4 element. Organozirconium compounds have been widely studied, in part because they are useful catalysts in Ziegler-Natta polymerization.
The first organozirconium compound discovered (1953) was zirconocene dibromide, belongs to the metallocene family. It was prepared in a reaction of the cyclopentadienyl magnesium bromide and zirconium(IV) chloride. Zirconocenes are used as polymerization catalysts such as Kaminsky catalysts, partly replacing organotitanium compounds.
Read more about Organozirconium Chemistry: Hydrozirconation, Zirconocyclisation, Organohafnium Chemistry, See Also
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“For me chemistry represented an indefinite cloud of future potentialities which enveloped my life to come in black volutes torn by fiery flashes, like those which had hidden Mount Sinai. Like Moses, from that cloud I expected my law, the principle of order in me, around me, and in the world.... I would watch the buds swell in spring, the mica glint in the granite, my own hands, and I would say to myself: “I will understand this, too, I will understand everything.””
—Primo Levi (1919–1987)