The review considers the main stages of development of the chemistry of coordination compounds at the Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry. VI Vernadsky National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of its founding. An overview of complex compounds of p, d, f-metals with different classes of ligands (inorganic and organic), features of their synthesis, study of the structure and properties of the obtained compounds, contains current material on the use of synthesized complexes to create functional materials for different purposes. Methods of synthesis have been developed, dozens of new coordination compounds with derivatives of hydrazones, amines, azomethanes, and thiosemicarbazones have been synthesized and isolated in the individual state. Their composition, structure and physicochemical properties are determined. The general regularities that take place in the process of complexation of metals with ligands, as well as factors influencing the composition, structure and physicochemical properties of the obtained coordination compounds are established.
For the long history of the Institute has accumulated a huge amount of material on the problems of modern coordination chemistry. Significant research in this area belongs to Ukrainian scientists who have worked long and fruitfully at the Institute: A.K. Babko, К.B. Yatsimirsky, Ya.A. Fialkov, I.A. Sheka, S.V. Volkov, N.A. Kostromina, and who created scientific schools, known not only in Ukraine but also abroad. To date, the attention of scientists of the Institute has shifted from classical monomeric to bigeteronuclear, polynuclear, multiligand complexes, which is primarily due to intensive research of new functional materials: optical and magnetic, biologically active substances, as well as effective adsorbents, chemical sensors, catalysts, catalysts, catalysts and biochemical processes.