The chemistry of platinum group metals is a rapidly expanding commercially important field. It is dominated by the catalytic properties of the metals. They are useful in petrochemical and general chemical plants and are becoming increasingly important as autocatalysts for pollution control. The book covers recent developments in the chemistry of the six platinum group metals, namely, platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium, ruthenium and osmium. The material falls into three broad areas. Firstly, the occurrence, extraction and use of the metals, especially in catalysis, electrochemistry, energy and electronics. Secondly, organometallic and homogeneous catalytic chemistry and last but not least coordination chemistry including biochemistry and cancer therapy.

The work is aimed at scientists in universities and in industry using any of the six platinum group metals in research. It will be useful for those studying the compounds of the metals themselves, and those considering to use either the metals or their complexes and catalysts in their experimental work.

It is now IS years since the first patents in polymer supported metal complex catalysts were taken out. In the early days ion-exchange resins were used to support ionic metal complexes. Soon covalent links were developed, and after an initially slow start there was a period of explosive growth in the mid to late 1970s during which virtually every homogeneous metal complex catalyst ever reported was also studied bound to a support. Both polymers and inorganic oxides were studied as supports, although the great preponderance of workers studied polymeric supports, and of these polystyrene was by far the commonest used. This period served to show that by very careful design polymer-supported metal complex catalysts could have specific advantages over homogeneous metal complex catalysts. However the subject was a complicated one. Merely immobilising a successful metal complex catalyst to a functionalised support rarely yielded other than an inferior version of the catalyst. Amongst the many discouraging results of the 1970s, there were more than enough results that were sufficiently encouraging to demonstrate that, by careful design, supported metal complex catalysts could be prepared in which both the metal complex and the support combined together to produce an active catalyst which, due to the combination of support and complex, had advantages of activity, selectivity and specificity not found in homogeneous catalysts. Thus a new generation of catalysts was being developed.