Comprehensive Coordination Chemistry Ii. Applications Of Coordination Chemistry

Introduction to Volume 9 This volume aims to give as complete a coverage of the real and possible applications of coordination complexes as is possible in a single volume. It is far more wide-ranging in its coverage than the related volume on ‘applications’ in the first edition of CCC (1987). The chapters cover the following areas: (i) use of coordination complexes in all types of catalysis (Chapters 1–11); (ii) applications related to the optical properties of coordination complexes, which covers fields as diverse as solar cells, nonlinear optics, display devices, pigments and dyes, and optical data storage (Chapters 12–16); (iii) hydrometallurgical extraction (Chapter 17); (iv) medicinal and biomedical applications of coordination complexes, including both imaging and therapy (Chapters 18–22); and (v) use of coordination complexes as precursors to semiconductor films and nanoparticles (Chapter 23). As such, the material in this volume ranges from solid-state physics to biochemistry. There are a few points to make about the extent and depth of the coverage of material in this volume. First, the sheer quantity of material involved necessarily limits the depth of the coverage. To take a single example, the use of metal complexes as catalysts for carbonylation reactions is a subject worth a large book in its own right, and covering it in a few tens of pages means that the focus is on recent examples which illustrate the scope of the subject rather than covering encyclopedica