H.M. Colquhoun - Böcker

Since the publication of our earlier book on transition metal mediated organic synthesis, * there has been a widespread increase of interest in this topic, and transition metal based methodology has become firmly established in many areas of organic chemistry. The direct, catalytic formation of organic carbonyl compounds using carbon monoxide as the source of the carbonyl group has seen exceptional progress, and this carbonylation chemistry is being used increasingly in research and on a larger scale for fine chemicals production. In view of these developments, there is a need for a modem, practi­ cally oriented book dealing with transition metal based carbonylation chemistry. The present monograph should help fulfill this need, since it is intended specifically to foster the adoption of catalytic carbonylation as a general tool in synthetic organic chemistry. It deals exclusively with reactions involving the interconversion of carbon monoxide and organic carbonyl compounds, and although the majority of the reactions discussed involve catalytic formation of carbonyl compounds, potentially valuable syntheses requiring stoichiometric quantities of transition metal are also included. In addition, a chapter is devoted to the remarkably useful reverse transformation (decarbonylation), in which an organic carbonyl group is eliminated in the form of carbon monoxide.

The continually growing contribution of transition metal chemistry to synthetic organic chemistry is, of course, widely recognized. Equally well­ known is the difficulty in keeping up-to-date with the multifarious reactions and procedures that seem to be spawned at an ever-increasing rate. These can certainly be summarized on the basis of reviews under the headings of the individual transition metals. More useful to the bench organic chemist, however, would be the opposite type of concordance based on the structural type of the desired synthetic product. This is the approach taken in the present monograph, which presents for each structural entity a conspectus of the transition metal-mediated processes that can be employed in its production. The resulting comparative survey should be a great help in devising the optimum synthetic approach for a particular goal. It is presented from an essentially practical viewpoint, with detailed direc­ tions interspersed in the Houben-Weyl style. The wide scope of the volume should certainly encourage synthetic organic chemists to utilize fully the range and versatility of these transition metal-mediated processes. This will certainly be a well-thumbed reference book! R. A. RAPHAEL Cambridge University v Preface In recent years an enormous amount of work has been done on the catalysis of organic reactions by various transition metal species and on the organic reactivity of organo-transition-metal compounds.