OPPORTUNITIES IN HOMOGENEOUS CATALYSIS

An account is given of part of our exploratory journey through homogeneous catalysis, aimed at finding potential applications of homogeneous catalysis in the synthesis of (large-scale) industrial chemicals. The intimate interplay between the neutral ligands and associated anions in electrophilic, cationic transition metal complex catalysts, determining the catalyst activity and selectivity in a variety of reactions, has been chosen as the theme of this presentation. To illustrate this theme, we report a variety of findings, made in our study of reactions such as the carbonylation of olefins, hydroformylation of formaldehyde and olefins, reductive carbonylation of nitro-aromatic compounds and olefin dimerization. © 1990, IUPAC.