This first book to illuminate this important aspect of chemical synthesis improves the lifetime of catalysts, thus reducing material and saving energy, costs and waste.
The international panel of expert authors describes the studies that have been conducted concerning the way homogeneous catalysts decompose, and the differences between homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts.
The result is a ready reference for organic, catalytic, polymer and complex chemists, as well as those working in industry and with/on organometallics.

Piet van Leeuwen is group leader in the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia, Tarragona, Spain, since 2004 and emeritus professor of homogeneous catalysis at the University of Amsterdam. Until 1994 he headed a research group at Shell Research in Amsterdam studying many aspects of homogeneous catalysis. He coauthored 300 publications, 30 patents, many book chapters, is author of the book 'Homogeneous catalysis: Understanding the art'. In 2005 he won the Holleman Prize (for organic chemists), granted only every five years by the Royal Academy, and obtained a Marie Curie Chair of Excellence in Tarragona.

John Chadwick is employed by LyondellBasell Industries and since 2001 has been on secondment at Eindhoven University of Technology, where he is programme coordinator for Dutch Polymer Institute (DPI) projects on polymer catalysis and immobilization. Until 1995, he was at Shell Research in Amsterdam, after which he transferred to the LyondellBasell (at that time Montell, later Basell) research center in Ferrara, Italy, where he was involved in fundamental Ziegler-Natta catalyst R&D. His main research interests involve heterogeneous olefin polymerization catalysis, including Ziegler-Natta and immobilized single-site systems. He is author or co-author of more than 60 publications and 11 patents.