Metal carbene complexes have made their way from organometallic curiosities to valuable reagents and catalysts. They offer novel synthetic opportunities in carbon-carbon bond formation based on either carbene-centered reactions or on metal-templated processes which makes them indispensable in modern synthetic methodology. The most prominent metal carbenes are now either commercially available or easy to synthesize and handle with modern laboratory techniques. This volume organized in eight chapters written by the leading scientists in the field illustrates the theoretical background, non-classical nucleophilic and cycloaddition patterns, chromium-templated benzannulation and photo-induced reactions, rhodium-catalyzed carbene transfer as well as the principles and applications of olefin metathesis which has coined the progress in synthetic methodology over the past decade. Designed for researchers in academia and industry as well as graduate students it presents the state-of-the-art potential of carbene complexes in modern organic synthesis.

Metal carbene complexes have made their way from organometallic curiosities to valuable reagents and catalysts. They offer novel synthetic opportunities in carbon-carbon bond formation based on either carbene-centered reactions or on metal-templated processes which makes them indispensable in modern synthetic methodology. The most prominent metal carbenes are now either commercially available or easy to synthesize and handle with modern laboratory techniques. This volume organized in eight chapters written by the leading scientists in the field illustrates the theoretical background, non-classical nucleophilic and cycloaddition patterns, chromium-templated benzannulation and photo-induced reactions, rhodium-catalyzed carbene transfer as well as the principles and applications of olefin metathesis which has coined the progress in synthetic methodology over the past decade. Designed for researchers in academia and industry as well as graduate students it presents the state-of-the-art potential of carbene complexes in modern organic synthesis.

PATAI's Chemistry of Functional Groups publishes comprehensive reviews on all aspects of specific functional groups. Each volume contains outstanding surveys on theoretical and computational aspects, NMR, MS, other spectroscopic methods and analytical chemistry, structural aspects, thermochemistry, photochemistry, synthetic approaches and strategies, synthetic uses and applications in chemical and pharmaceutical industries, biological, biochemical, and environmental aspects. To date, over 150 volumes have been published in the series. The present volume is the first in the series to survey the properties and chemical behavior of organocobalt compounds, as well as their use in small- and large-scale organic synthesis. Organocobalt compounds have important uses as catalysts in cross-coupling and cycloaddition reactions, as well as in industrial-scale hydroformylation and carbonylation processes.