Pracejus has undertaken to set out in less than 300 A 5 pages a summary, in the German language, of the whole field of coordination catalysis from the point of view of the organic chemist, and in this he has been successful. The mechanistic features are presented only as the principle for the arrangement of the text, and the kinetic investigations that form the basis for mechanistic representations are intentionally reported only in a secondary manner.
The book contains an introduction (21 pages), followed by chapters on hydrogenation and dehydrogenation (1 8), isomerization and disproportionation (1 2), oxidation ( ), nonoxidative formation of C-heteroatom bonds ( ), dimerization and oligomerization (44), polymerization (42), and syntheses by means of C , compounds (60); the last chapter concerns the relationships between homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis by coordination catalysts (carrier-fixed complex compounds as catalysts (I), methods for carrier fixation (8), and special features of carrier-fixed complex catalysts (3)). Finally, the coordination-chemical phenomena observed in the catalysis by metals and metal oxides are described in 6 pages.
Facts are clearly presented, and what is still unclear is often plainly described as such. The main target of the book is to draw the still incomplete directions of research to the attention of advanced Students, post-graduate students, and interested specialist colleagues. Tables and clear diagrams facilitate orientation.
Admittedly, anyone wanting to know how polyethylene is in fact manufactured nowadays must search through the original and patent literature with the aid of the relatively complete citation of review articles, and there he will find "that the patent literature describes thousands of combinations of transition-metal compounds with maingroup metal alkyls, among which almost every transition metal is mentioned".
I failed to find any reference to the importance of Mg alkyls for Ziegler catalysts, to the system TiCI3 AICI3, to the work of B.