The literature contains tens of thousands of publications and patents devoted to the synthesis, characterization and processing of polymers. Despite the fact that there are more than one hundred elements, the majority of these publications and patents concern polymers with carbon backbones. Furthermore, the limited (by comparison) number of publications on polymers that contain elements other than carbon in their backbones are typically devoted to polymers based on silicon, especially those with Si-O bonds. This disparity is partially a consequence of the dearth of low cost organometallic feedstock chemicals potentially useful for polymer synthesis. It also derives from the lack of general synthetic techniques for the preparation of organometallic polymers. That is, by comparison with the numerous synthetic strategies available for the preparation of organic polymers, there are few such strategies available for synthesizing tractable, organometallic polymers. In recent years, commerical and military performance requirements have begun to challenge the performance limits of organic polymers. As such, researchers have turned to organometallic polymers as a possible means of exceeding these limits for a wide range of applications that include: (1) microelectronics processing (e.g. photoresists) [1]; (2) light weight batteries (conductors and semi-conductors) [2]; (3) non-linear optical devices [3] and, (4) high temperature structural materials (e.g. ceramic fiber processing) [4,5].

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Large Transition Metal Clusters - Bridges between Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Catalysts?.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Large Clusters.- 3. Colloids.- 4. Supported Metal Particles.- 5. Large Clusters in Catalysis.- 6. Conclusions.- 7. References.- Transition Metal Catalyzed Synthesis of Organometallic Polymers.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Dehydrocoupling Reactions.- 3. Dehydrocoupling at Boron.- 4. Dehydrocoupling at Silicon.- 5. Si-H Self-Reaction Dehydrocoupling.- 6. Si-H Catalytic Reaction with E-H.- 7. Redistribution Reactions.- 8. Ring-Opening Catalysis.- 9. Future Directions.- 10. References.- Homogeneous Catalytic Hydrogenation of Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Heteroaromatic Nitrogen Compounds: Synthetic and Mechanistic Aspects.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Hydrogenation of Mono and Polynuclear Aromatic Hydrocarbons.- 3. Hydrogenation of Mono and Polynuclear Heteroaromatic Nitrogen Compounds.- 4. High Pressure Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Studies: The Mechanism of Quinoline Hydrogenation with Cp*Rh2+.- 5. Conclusions.- 6. Acknowledgement.- 7. References.- Surface Organometallic Chemistry on Oxides, on Zeolites and on Metals.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Basic Rules Governing the Reactivity of Organometallic Compounds with Surfaces of Inorganic Oxides.- 3. Some Elementary Steps in Heterogeneous Catalysis from Well Defined Surface Organometallic Fragments.- 4. Surface Organometallic Chemistry as a Tool for Tailor Made Catalysts: Preparation of Bimetallic Particles from Bimetallic (or Heteropolynuclear) Clusters of Group VIII Metals.- 5. Surface Organometallic Chemistry on Zeolites: a New Approach for the Control of the Pore Opening Size.- 6. Surface Organometallic Chemistry on Metals: New Generation of Bimetallic Catalysts Obtained by Reaction of Complexes of Main Group Elements with Group VIII Metals in Zero or Higher Oxidation State.- 7. Conclusion.- 8. References.