Organic derivatives of copper and silver

The work described in this thesis was carried out in the Chemistry Department of the Durham Colleges in the University of Durham, between 1958 and 1960.The main effort was directed towards the formation of stable organo derivatives of copper and silver in which the metal is simultaneously co-ordinated to π-bonding ligands, especially tertiary phosphines. Two subsidiary topics were studied, both of which failed to develop into positive research problems. One was concerned with attempts to obtain substituted derivatives of nickelocene, and the other involved the use of alkali metal-hydrocarbon compounds, such as sodium naphthalene, as a means of introducing alkali metals into the graphite lattice. Both of these topics are reported, since a considerable amount of time was devoted to them.