Among the myriad new methodological strategies developed over the past 50 years, none have impacted the construction of organic molecules as much as those transformations categorized as cross-coupling reactions. Most of these reactions rapidly assumed their current status as "name reactions", including the Suzuki-Miyaura, Negishi, Kumada-Tamao/Corriu, Stille/Migita-Kosugi, Tamao-Kumada/Hiyama-Hatanaka and Sonogashira cross-couplings, as well as the Mizoroki-Heck, Tsuji-Trost and Buchwald-Hartwig reactions. All cross-couplings are inextricably linked by one common theme: they employ catalyst systems comprised of various metal complexes and ligands that promote the reactions through catalytic cycles in which many of the individual steps are analogous. For this reason this Handbook focuses on the individual components of catalyst systems. Many of these may be organized into "super-families" of compounds that are constituted from similar molecular platforms. An attempt has been made to group these under a single parent compound.

All the information compiled in this volume is also available in electronic format on Wiley InterScience. The electronic Encyclopedia of Reagents for Organic Synthesis (e-EROS) includes all the reagents described in this volume plus many more reagents of other types and for other uses. e-EROS allows for both text and structure searches and has many new and updated entries added every year. For more information visit:

http://www.mrw.interscience.wiley.com/eros/