Bücher der Reihe Reactivity and Structure: Concepts in Organic Chemistry

The significant increase in applications of Barbier and Barbier-type reactions in (in-) organic synthesis over the past twenty-five years, combined with repeated stimulation on the part of Springer-Verlag (Dr. R.

Rotation about the Carbon-Carbon single bond is generallyregarded to be unrestricted. About 50 years ago, rotationalisomers were found to exhibit optical activity: substitutedbiphenyl derivatives.From the contents: The "Free Rotation Concept" - RotamerPopulations - Barriers to Rotation - Reactivity ofRotational Isomers.

Many organic chemists will agree with me that the old "electronic theory" has for a long time been inadequate for the interpretation of various new findings in chemistry, particularly for those of reactivity. Theory produces new experimental ideas and conversely, a host of experimental data add another vista to new theories.

The many structurally interesting polyquinane natural products isolated and characterized in recent years have provided a particularly delightful forum for application of various new synthetic protocols, many of which must equally well accommodate the particular stereochemical demands of each indi vidual target.

Avoiding one-sided dogmatism we tried to demonstrate the importance of alternative principles as guidelines to the evolution of alternative order in chemical systems.

Ultrasound has been known to promote chemical reactions for the past 60 years, but despite this, it did not attract the attention of synthetic chemists until recently.

This book was written in the context of the daily confrontation with problems in the utilization of polymeric supports for the synthesis of pep tides.

Titanium has been used to perform many kinds of reactions in organic and inorganic chemistry. It is summarized in Chapter 2 of this book, because some aspects are useful in understanding reactivity and selectivity of organo titanium compounds in organic synthesis as described in the chapters which follow.

The complexes that they form are therefore cyclic inclusion complexes. Because the complexes are cyclic in nature, complexation can be very strong, as op posed to 1t-complex, electrostatic, or apolar complexes in which complex formation is two-dimensional rather than three-dimensional.

In 1967 "The Organic Compounds of Mercury", volume 4 in the series "Methods of Elemento Organic Chemistry" appeared and this was followed in 1974 by Houben Weyl's full volume, Band XIII/2b, devoted entirely to the organometallic compounds of mercury.

After an introductory chapter which gives the basis principles and includes a brief critique of the technique, the book is divided into three further chapters dealing respec tively with (a) experimental techniques, (b) behaviour of metal atoms in matrices, and (c) results of prep~rative experiments.

In 1970 I wrote a review article for "Topics in Current Chemistry", surveying the general reaction patterns of transition-metal complexes from the standpoint of organic synthesis.

Although the first electroorganic reaction used in organic synthesis is probably the famous Kolbe electrolysis published in 1849, no other remarkable reactions have been found until the reductive dimerization of acrylonitrile to adipo nitrile was developed by Dr. M.

Chromium oxidation, well known and widely explored in organic chemistry since the very beginning of this science, is a topic of current interest for the organic chemist as evidenced by the continuous development of new techni ques and procedures reported in the literature.

The third chapter is devoted to the all-carbon intramolecular Alder ene reaction. The tables in that chapter summarize all examples that could be found in the literature through 1981, with several additional examples from 1982.

The field of phase transfer catalysis is a tribute to the chemists involved in process development research. In fact, much of the early work in this area was conducted by industrial chemists although the work was not labelled phase transfer catalysis at the time.

In recognition of this and to show the wayan appendix of recent results and interpretation has been included where an alteration in viewpoint on some of the material treated in the text has been necessitated by developments in the most recent literature.

A number of excellent reviews have been published dealing with one or more aspects of macrocycle chemistry, but we felt a great need for a single source listing known compounds. We have, the- fore, attempted to provide such a listing to assist ourselves in keeping track as well as, we hope, helping others in this field.

Although studies on synthetic dyes have been performed for more than 100 years, their detailed elucidation requires further extensive research. For this reason organic chemists and color chemists have looked for relations between the "color and constitution" of dye molecules for a long time.

Apart from two important industrial processes - acetaldehyde and vinylacetate from ethylene - a great number of conversions and catalytic reactions with palladium compounds have been researched.

More than a decade has passed since the appearance of the last edition of the book "Carbon Monoxide in Organic Synthesis". Therefore, the time was ripe to fundamentally revise "Carbon Monoxide in Organic Synthesis" and to complete its coverage by introducing the chapters "Homo logation" and "Carbon Monoxide Hydrogenation".