The field of organometallic chemistry has emerged over the last
twenty-five years or so to become one of the most important areas of
chemistry, and there are no signs of abatement in the intense current
interest in the subject, particularly in terms of its proven and
potential application in catalytic reactions involving hydrocarbons. The
development of the organometallic/ catalysis area has resulted in no
small way from many contributions from researchers investigating
palladium systems. Even to the well-initiated, there seems a bewildering
and diverse variety of organic reactions that are promoted by
palladium(II) salts and complexes. Such homogeneous reactions include
oxidative and nonoxidative coupling of substrates such as olefins,
dienes, acetylenes, and aromatics; and various isomerization,
disproportionation, hydrogenation, dehydrogenation, car- bonylation and
decarbonylation reactions, as well as reactions involving formation of
bonds between carbon and halogen, nitrogen, sulfur, and silicon. The
books by Peter M. Maitlis - The Organic Chemistry of Palladium, Volumes
I, II, Academic Press, 1971 - serve to classify and identify the wide
variety of reactions, and access to the vast literature is available
through these volumes and more recent reviews, including those of J.
Tsuji [Accounts Chem. Res., 6, 8 (1973); Adv. in Organometal., 17, 141
(1979)], R. F. Heck [Adv. in Catat., 26, 323 (1977)], and ones by
Henry [Accounts Chem. Res., 6, 16 (1973); Adv. in Organometal., 13, 363
(1975)]. F. R. Hartley's book - The Chemistry of Platinum and
Palladium, App!. Sci. Pub!.
