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.