The efficacy of isocyanide reactions in the synthesis of natural or naturallike products has resulted in a renaissance of isocyanide chemistry. Now isocyanides are widely used in different branches of organic, inorganic, coordination, combinatorial and medicinal chemistry. This invaluable reference is the only book to cover the topic in such depth, presenting all aspects of synthetic isonitrile chemistry. The highly experienced and internationally renowned editor has brought together an equally distinguished team of authors who cover multicomponent reactions, isonitriles in total synthesis, isonitriles in polymer chemistry and much more.

Fully updated and expanded to reflect recent advances, this Fourth Edition of the classic text provides students and professional chemists with an excellent introduction to the principles and general properties of organometallic compounds, as well as including practical information on reaction mechanisms and detailed descriptions of contemporary applications.

The continually growing contribution of transition metal chemistry to synthetic organic chemistry is, of course, widely recognized. Equally well known is the difficulty in keeping up-to-date with the multifarious reactions and procedures that seem to be spawned at an ever-increasing rate. These can certainly be summarized on the basis of reviews under the headings of the individual transition metals. More useful to the bench organic chemist, however, would be the opposite type of concordance based on the structural type of the desired synthetic product. This is the approach taken in the present monograph, which presents for each structural entity a conspectus of the transition metal-mediated processes that can be employed in its production. The resulting comparative survey should be a great help in devising the optimum synthetic approach for a particular goal. It is presented from an essentially practical viewpoint, with detailed direc tions interspersed in the Houben-Weyl style. The wide scope of the volume should certainly encourage synthetic organic chemists to utilize fully the range and versatility of these transition metal-mediated processes. This will certainly be a well-thumbed reference book! R. A. RAPHAEL Cambridge University v Preface In recent years an enormous amount of work has been done on the catalysis of organic reactions by various transition metal species and on the organic reactivity of organo-transition-metal compounds.

Inorganic and Bio-Inorganic Chemistry is the component of Encyclopedia of Chemical Sciences, Engineering and Technology Resources in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. The Theme on Inorganic and Bio-Inorganic Chemistry in the Encyclopedia of Chemical Sciences, Engineering and Technology Resources deals with the discipline which studies the chemistry of the elements of the periodic table. It covers the following topics: From simple to complex compounds; Chemistry of metals; Inorganic synthesis; Radicals reactions with metal complexes in aqueous solutions; Magnetic and optical properties; Inorganometallic chemistry; High temperature materials and solid state chemistry; Inorganic biochemistry; Inorganic reaction mechanisms;Homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis; Cluster and polynuclear compounds; Structure and bonding in inorganic chemistry; Synthesis and spectroscopy of transition metal complexes; Nanosystems;Computational inorganic chemistry; Energy and inorganic chemistry. These two volumes are aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College students Educators, Professional practitioners, Research personnel and Policy analysts, managers, and decision makers and NGOs