This book contains a series of papers and abstracts from the 7th
Industry-University Cooperative Chemistry Program symposium held in the
spring of 1989 at Texas A&M University. The symposium was larger than
previous IUCCP symposia since it also celebrated the 25 years that had
elapsed since the initial discovery by F. A. Cotton and his co-workers
of the existence of metal-metal quadruple bonds. Cotton's discovery
demonstrated that multiple bonding in inorganic systems is not governed
by the same constraints observed in organic chemistry regarding s and p
orbital involvement. The d orbitals are involved in the multiple bonding
description. The quadruple bond involves considerable d orbital overlap
between adjacent metal centers. Part I of this series of papers focuses
upon the impact of this discovery and describes further contributions to
the development of the field. Multiple metal-metal bonding now is known
to permeate broad areas of transition metal chemistry. The understanding
of metal-metal bonding that developed as a result of the discovery of
multiple metal-metal bonding awakened a new chemistry involving metal
clusters. Clusters were defined by Cotton to be species containing
metal-metal bonding. Clusters in catalysis therefore seemed a logical
grouping of papers in this symposium. Clusters play an every increasing
role in the control of chemical reactions. Part II of this book
describes some of the interesting new developments in this field. In
Part III the papers examine the role clusters play in describing and
understanding solid state materials.
