The demand for selective organic reactions is growing more acute
everyday. Indeed, greater product selectivity has an important impact on
energy and resource utilization, in terms of reduced process energy
requirements for product separation and purification, in terms of
low-value by-products, and in terms of environmental acceptance and
compatibility. Moreover, more and more chemicals, especially
pharmaceuticals, have to be sold in an optically active form. The search
for selectivity constitutes a tremendous challenge for the chemists. In
the last two decades, homogeneous transition metal based catalysis has
emerged as one of the most promising tools for obtaining selectivity. In
connection with developments in this area, this book contains updated
and expanded versions of most of the lectures presented at a Cornett
course held in Trieste (Italy) in 1989 and sponsored by the European
Community. A primary aim is to cultivate a deeper understanding of the
parameters that govern the selectivities and stimulate a wider
utilization of transition metal based catalysis in organic synthesis.
All aspects of selectivity, chemo-, regio-, stereo- and
enantioselectivity are considered and illustrated by applications in
various fields or organic synthesis. The impact of catalysis in
oxydation, reduction, carbonylation reactions, carbene chemistry, in Ni
and Pd promoted dimerizations, oligomerizations as well as
fonctionalisations is stressed, quite often with special emphasis laid
on reaction mechanisms. In this aspect, the last chapter examplifies the
interest of high pressure NMR and IR when investigating the nature of
reaction intermediates in homogeneous reactions.
