_P.-Powell-auth.-Principles-of-Organometallic-Chemistry-Springer-Netherlands-1988

Foreword
The teaching of chemistry to undergraduate students presents course-content
problems which grow ever more difficult as huge amounts of new material are
added yearly to the overall body of the subject.
Some fifty years ago a student graduating with a good quality degree in
chemistry could be expected to ha ve a reasonable grasp of most areas, including a
fair number of recent developments. Sin ce then, the explosion of knowledge has
made any such expectation quite unrealistic. Teachers of the subject continue,
however. to need texts to which they can refer students. The excellent but
mammoth compendia are clearly unsuitable for anything but reference.
Dr Powell's book provides a suitable anchor for students aiming at a useful
grasp of organometallic chemistry, especially that of the transition elements.
Applications of chemistry to industry often feature negligibly in undergraduate
courses; the chapter on industrial processes should help to remedy this
unfortunate situation.
The growth of organometallic chemistry over the past 40-50 years has been
immense. The present book can trace its ancestry to a 'slim volume' published in
19 5 5, almost the whole of the very short chapter on transition metals having
been added in the proof stage in 19 54. The third edition, written by three authors,
devoted an entire volume to transition metals. After the publication of this two
volume work, its authors decided that the book was no longer suitable for most
students, and that a text aimed at undergraduate students should be written. Dr
Powell was o ne of the four authors ofthe resulting book ( 19 68 ), and the present
volume stems from it.
G.E. Coates, M.L.H. Green and K. Wade
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