Homogeneous Catalysts by Piet van Leeuwen and John Chadwick provides the reader with an overview of catalyst development in various chemical transformations that are typically carried out in a homogeneous solution phase.

In his review in Angewandte Chemie, George Britovsek, Imperial College London, UK, says:

Unlike other books in the area, Homogeneous Catalysts turns the spotlight on the catalysts: their activity, their stability, and their deactivation pathways. Both authors have made their careers in industrial as well as in academic labs. Their life-long experience in the field has resulted in a book wherein they generously share their in-depth knowledge and understanding of the area of homogeneous catalysis.

A real strength of this book, and where it stands out compared to other books in the area, is that in each chapter the focus is not only on catalyst activity, but emphatically on catalyst stability and deactivation pathways for the ligands and the metal complexes—an aspect of homogeneous catalysts that is too often ignored in many publications and patents. This gives the important take-home message that catalyst stability and an understanding of the catalyst’s decomposition pathways are as important as their evaluation of catalytic activity.

Homogeneous Catalysts will provide a highly valuable resource for researchers working on the development of homogeneous catalysts in industrial and academic labs. I, for one, am very glad to have a copy.

• Read the full book review at:
  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2012, 51(7), 1518.
  DOI: 10.1002/anie.201108293
• 

  Homogeneous Catalysts: Activity – Stability – Deactivation,
  J. C. Chadwick, P. W. N. M. van Leeuwen,
  Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, Germany, 2011.
  ISBN: 978-3-527-32329-6

Also of interest:

• New Strategy for Controlling Catalyst Reactivity
  Supramolecular capsules that control the coordination geometry of a metal could provide new routes to control the reactivity of catalysts
• 70th Birthday: Piet van Leeuwen
  Piet van Leeuwen’s 70th birthday was celebrated with a special symposium held in his honor