This volume of Advances in Organometallic Chemistry is concerned
exclusively with the involvement of metal compounds in catalysis and
organic synthesis. We have collected together ten chapters on these
topics so as to provide in one volume a survey of the growing importance
of organometallics in industrial processes and laboratory syntheses. It is
impossible to provide complete coverage of the subject within the confines
of a single volume of necessarily limited length. Nevertheless, we
believe that our contributors have presented ample evidence of what
many regard as the most significant growth area of organometallic chemistry
and one of vast technological importance.
Several articles on these topics have appeared in earlier volumes. For
the convenience of readers they are listed here. In addition, articles on
Ziegler-Natta catalysis and on organolithium compounds in diene polymerization
are planned for the next volume of this serial publication