Born and initially developed in various industrial laboratories, mainly
in U.S.A. and Gennany, homogeneous phase catalytic carbon monoxide
hydrogenation and alcohols and their derivatives carbonylation and
homologation, have generally been considered and reviewed separately in
the course of their 40 years history without concern for common aspects
in the chemical transfonnations and in catalysis. Thanks to researchers
of Japanese companies participating in the National C 1 Chemistry
Project (1980-1987) the scientific and technical approaches in this
field have been unified and applied in parallel, in the light of some
common aspects of the chemical reactions and mechanisms. Now, at a
moment when research seems becahned, a general presentation and
discussion of the most recent topics might be an useful basis for
further development of this chemistry. To delimit and simplify the
discussion of the chemical aspects and the nature of the catalysts
involved, the present review is limited to reactions employing
homogeneous metal complexes for the direct conversion of syngas to
oxygenates and to the hydrocarbonylation of these last to homologous
derivatives. Since the previous practically contemporary reviews by
Dombek [in Adv. Organomet. Chern. (1983)] on CO hydrogenation and by
the present authors [in Asp.Homog.Catal.(Reidel Pu.l984)] on alcohol
homologation fully cover the literature up to 1982, here we mainly refer
to work done after 1982, and consider the cited reviews as covering the
historical development of research in the 1940- 1980 period.
