Introductory remarks

Abstract

It is more than 30 years since the foundation of organo-transition metal chemistry and its useful applications. The names of Nobel Laureates E. O. Fischer and G. Wilkinson, K .Ziegler and G. Natta are associated with the earliest years of the development of this field. Indeed, the early chemistry of hydrocarbon derivatives of transition metals was largely developed by inorganic chemists whose primary interest focused on the transition metal chemistry rather than on transformations of organic compounds. Apart from a few, academic organic chemists were rather slow to appreciate the potential of organo-transition metal compounds as synthetic intermediates. What were the reasons for this delay? It was perhaps because in the early days of the development of organo-transition metal chemistry it was difficult to perceive pattern and order in the abundant complexity of new structural types and reactivities. Indeed, in the early days the fragmentary knowledge and understanding mitigated against much pretence of deeply argued strategies for research. Also, new techniques such as the need to work under an inert atmosphere with a vacuum/nitrogen line were unfamiliar to organic chemists