Hexol
Except where noted otherwise, data are given for materials in their standard state (at 25 °C, 100 kPa)
Infobox references

Hexol is a cobalt compound that was first prepared by Alfred Werner in 1914 and represented the first non-carbon-containing chiral compound. The salt with the molecular formula of [Co((OH)₂Co(NH₃)₄)₃](SO₄)₃ was prepared starting from cobalt(II) sulfate.

Optical resolution of this compound was possible by treating the hexol chloride salt with the resolving agent silver D-(+)-bromocamphorsulphonate in dilute acetic acid. The D-hexol salt precipitated out from solution and the filtrate contained the L-hexol species. (D-hexol and L-hexol are enantiomers of each other; see here for D/L notation.) Werner also published a second achiral hexol (a minor byproduct from the production of Fremy's salt) that he incorrectly identified as a linear trimer.

In 2004 the second hexol was reinvestigated and found to be a hexanuclear species.

[edit] External links

• Hexol Molecule of the Month September 1997 Website
• National Pollutant Inventory - Cobalt fact sheet

[edit] References

• A. Werner, H. Kuh, P. Wust Ber. 1914, 47, 196
• The rediscovery of Alfred Werner's second hexol W. Gregory Jackson, Josephine A. McKeon, Margareta Zehnder, Markus Neuberger and Silvio Fallab Chemical Communications, 2004, (20), 2322 - 2323 Abstract