Technical application of water-soluble catalysts

Water-soluble catalysts are playing an increasingly important role in the manufacture of organic chemicals. Simple product/catalyst separation, high selectivity and prolonged life times are the predominant advantages over the classical homogeneous catalysts. The manuscript describes the classes of water-soluble ligands, the synthesis of metal complexes as well as the applications of water-soluble catalysts in industry today. An outlook on the prospects of this interesting class of compounds is given at the end.