Mesmerizing Journey of the Meisenheimer Complex

The chemistry of the Meisenheimer complex or anionic sigma complex is an important part of organic chemistry. All sorts of aromatic nucleophilic substitutions proceed through forming a Meisenheimer complex. Since its inception, the Meisenheimer complex has mesmerized organic chemists through its intense red color. Earlier this complex was thought to be a transient species and the isolation of this kind of complex was unimaginable. But over years, stable Meisenheimer complexes were isolated and characterized through X-Ray Diffraction. In the last century, the chemistry of Meisenheimer complexes has expanded its branches towards untrodden and unexpected directions. Meisenheimer complexes have been explored in the last decade to solve real-world problems in the form of groundwater purification, pollutant detection in water, VOC sensing, hazardous chemical detection, monitoring the purity of laboratory chemicals, oil spill removal, etc. Despite all these advancements, no book was published in recent times to cover all these achievements. That is why an earnest effort has been dedicated to throw some light on the journey of the Meisenheimer complex from its beginning to the present era.