Alfred Stock

German chemist

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June 17, 2026

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Alfred Stock was a German chemist renowned for his pioneering work in the synthesis and characterization of boranes, which are compounds of boron and hydrogen. He developed high-vacuum techniques to study these volatile, air-sensitive, and toxic substances.1

Stock is also credited with developing a system of chemical nomenclature and notation, known as the Stock system. This system uses Roman numerals in parentheses to indicate the oxidation state of the significant element in a compound or ion.2

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borane
…1937 by the German chemist Alfred Stock. He called them boranes in analogy to the alkanes (saturated hydrocarbons), the hydrides of carbon (C), which is the neighbour of boron in the periodic table. Because the lighter boranes were volatile, sensitive to air and moisture, and toxic, Stock developed high-vacuum methods…
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…1937 by the German chemist Alfred Stock. He called them boranes in analogy to the alkanes (saturated hydrocarbons), the hydrides of carbon (C), which is the neighbour of boron in the periodic table. Because the lighter boranes were volatile, sensitive to air and moisture, and toxic, Stock developed high-vacuum methods…
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coordination compound
Ligands and chelates
…proposed by the German chemist Alfred Stock in 1916. Attachment of the ligands to the metal atom may be through only one atom, or it may be through several atoms. When only one atom is involved, the ligand is said to be monodentate; when two are involved, it is didentate,…
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…proposed by the German chemist Alfred Stock in 1916. Attachment of the ligands to the metal atom may be through only one atom, or it may be through several atoms. When only one atom is involved, the ligand is said to be monodentate; when two are involved, it is didentate,…
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