Organometallics and Catalysis: An Introduction

Manfred Bochmann is Professor of Inorganic Chemistry and Director of the Wolfson Materials and Catalysis Centre at the University of East Anglia where his research centres broadly around synthetic organometallic and coordination chemistry directed towards homogeneous catalysis. A former Head of the School of Chemistry, in 2003 he was awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry Medal for Organometallic Chemistry. Professor Bochmann is the author of two Oxford Chemistry Primers on organometallic chemistry, and is an Associate Editor of the journal Organometallics.

• Part 1. Organometallic Compounds of Main Group Elements ; 1.1 General and bonding considerations ; 1.2 Alkali metal organometallics: lithium ; 1.3 Organometallic compounds of alkaline earth metals ; 1.4 Zinc, cadmium and mercury ; 1.5 Organometallic compounds of the boron group ; 1.6 Organometallic compounds of the carbon group ; Part 2. Organometallic Compounds of Transition Metals ; 2.1 Ligand types ; 2.2 Common types of organometallic complexes ; 2.3 Electron counting and the 16/18-electron rule ; 2.4 Ligand properties and metal-ligand bonding ; 2.5 L-type *p-acceptor ligands : metal carbonyl complexes ; 2.6 L-type *p-acceptor ligands: alkenes, dienes and alkynes ; 2.7 LX- and L2X-type *p-acceptor ligands: allyl and enyl complexes ; 2.8 L2X-type *p-acceptor ligands: metallocene complexes ; 2.9 Arene complexes ; 2.10 Sigma complexes ; 2.11 Complexes with M-C *s-bonds ; 2.12 Alkylidene complexes ; 2.13 Complexes with MC triple bonds: carbynes ; Part 3. Homogeneous Catalysis with Organometallic Transition Metal Complexes ; 3.1 General considerations ; 3.2 Key reaction steps in homogeneous catalysis ; 3.3 Catalytic H-H and H-X additions ; 3.4 Catalytic carbonylations ; 3.5 Alkene oxidations ; 3.6 Coupling reactions ; 3.7 Alkene polymerizations ; Appendix 1 Commonly used solvents and their properties ; Appendix 2 Number and symmetry of infrared-active vibrations of metal carbonyl complexes ; Appendix 3 Answers to exercises ; Appendix 4 Further reading

Bochmann has done an excellent job. While providing broad coverage of the literature, it is organized in a fashion that will make the chemistry readily understandable to students and yet is comprehensive enough to be an excellent reference book for practitioners of organometallic chemistry. I believe this book will become the new standard text for teaching organometallic chemistry at the undergraduate and graduate levels.