Martin A. Bennett

He gained recognition for studies on the co-ordination chemistry of tertiary phosphines, olefins, and acetylenes, and the relationship of their behaviour to homogeneous catalysis.

Born in London, Bennett studied at The Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School and received his PhD under the supervision of Geoffrey Wilkinson at Imperial College.

This included extending work on the iridium analogue of Wilkinson's catalyst which he began at University College with Milner.

[IrCl(PPh3)3] rearranges on heating via an insertion reaction, an ortho-metalation of one of the phenyl moieties, to produce the six-co-ordinate organometallic iridium(III) hydride [HIrCl(PPh3)2(Ph2PC6H4)][5] – an example of iridium(I)-iridium(III) tautomerism involving the formation of a bidentate phosphine ligand with a carbon donor atom:[2][5] Bennett was the first to prepare complexes of cyclooctyne, cycloheptyne, and cyclohexyne.

His group first prepared the now-popular reagent (cymene)ruthenium dichloride dimer,[6] which is converted into a monomer by reaction with 1,1'-bis(diphenylphosphino)ferrocene for use in borrowing hydrogen catalysis[7]