The need for surveys and reviews in chemistry is at least as great now as
it was when the first volume of reviews was published. Therefore the comments
and acknowledgments in the preface to the first volume remain appropriate.
The need for surveys in all areas of chemistry remains clear. This
volume is the first product of a desire for a series in the area of inorganic
reaction mechanisms. It was decided to collect reviews by active inorganic
chemists working in the area of mechanisms and to have a group of these
reviews appear together as one volume in the series “Progress in Inorganic
Chemistry.”
Two points deserve mention. First, I believe that understanding of the
inorganic compounds and reactions is important to the understanding of
the mechanisms. Thus considerable latitude of subject occurs in this volume.
Second, attempts were made to include as authors chemists in other countries
whose work on mechanisms may be less familiar to the American chemists
than is the work carried out in the United States.
I wouild appreciate comments and criticisms.
Than‘ks are due to the many persons who helped make this volume
possible.