Russian Journal of Coordination Chemistry, Vol. 28, No. 3, 2002, p. 228. Translated from Koordinatsionnaya Khimiya, Vol. 28, No. 3, 2002, p. 240. Original Russian Text Copyright © 2002 by the Editorial Board.

BOOK REVIEW

Review of the Book by A. D. Garnovskii, I. S. Vasil’chenko, and D. A. Garnovskii “Modern Aspects of the Synthesis of Metal Complexes. The Main Ligands and Methods”, Rostov-on-Don: LaPO, 2000, 354 p. Despite more than a hundred years of history of coordination chemistry, very few monographs generalizing the synthesis and techniques used to construct the inner sphere of coordination compounds have been published. Books [1, 2] written with participation of the reviewer, a book on template synthesis [3], and a monograph on the so-called “direct” synthesis of metal complexes [4] are examples of this type. The book under review, “Modern Aspects of the Synthesis of Metal Complexes.” “The Main Ligands and Methods,” differs from the preceding four books in content and concept and supplements them; it is a step toward systematization of the methods and development of the strategy of synthesis of coordination compounds. The book comprises the following chapters. The first chapter entitled General Concepts of Coordination Chemistry considers basic concepts such as coordination bond, ligands, and coordination number. This chapter will be helpful for those who have just started working in this field of chemical science. The second chapter, The Most Important Ligands in Modern Coordination Chemistry, makes up more than one-third of the volume of the whole book and gives an excellent classification of ligands on the basis of ligand nature, the type of coordination bond, and characteristic features of some metal complexes. The types of coordination are analyzed in detail, although preparative methods resulting in their implementation are not discussed. In the third chapter, Principal Methods for the Synthesis of Coordination Compounds, the attention is focused on the classical reactions between metal salts and ligands. The less traditional template synthesis and the unusual methods of direct synthesis of coordination compounds, which have not yet found wide use, are also considered. The fouth chapter, Targeted Synthesis

of Coordination Compounds, consists of two sections, the first one being devoted to the problems of competing coordination of various electron-donating centers of ambident ligands to metal ions (an aspect of regioselective synthesis involving metal salts and complexes) and the second one being concerned with the routes of formation of a definite geometry of the coordination core (polyhedron-controlled synthesis, according to the authors' terminology). Generally, the book is intelligibly written and easy to read. The range of publications covered is broad, comprising almost 2000 references. The book is intended for specialists engaged in the fields of inorganic and coordination chemistry and for senior and post-graduate chemical students. REFERENCES 1. Davies, J.A., Hockensmith, C.M., Kukushkin, V.Yu., and Kukushkin, Yu.N., Synthetic Coordination Chemistry: Principles and Practice, Singapore: World Scientific, 1996. 2. Kukushkin, V.Yu. and Kukushkin, Yu.N., Teoriya i praktika sinteza koordinatsionnykh soedinenii (Theory and Practice of Synthesis of Coordination Compounds), Leningrad: Nauka, 1990. 3. Gerbeleu, N.V., Arion, V.B., and Burgess, J., Template Synthesis of Macrocyclic Compounds, Weinheim: Wiley-VCH, 1999. 4. Skopenko, V.V., Garnovskii, A.D., Kokozei, V.N., Kuzharov, A.S., Gokhon-Zorilla, G., Burlov, A.S., Vasil’eva, O.Yu., Pavlenko, V.A., Kharisov, B.I., Kherets, B.M., Blanko, M.L., and Garnovskii, D.A., Pryamoi sintez koordinatsionnykh soedinenii (Direct Synthesis of Coordination Compounds), Kiev: Venturi, 1997.

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