Some years ago, I agreed to contribute a volume to the Academic Press 'Organo metallic Chemistry' series - the metals to be covered were rhodium and iridium. Initially, my plan was to discuss both the fundamental organometallic chemistry and applications in organic synthesis. When the first draft of the manuscript was complete, it was apparent that I had exceeded my allowance of pages by a huge amount. It was then that I decided that the catalysis section warranted separate treatment. I am grateful to Reidel for agreeing to publish this volume on Homogeneous Catalysis with Compounds of Rhodium and Iridium as part of their 'Catalysis by Metal Complexes' series. The material I had for the original Academic Press project covered the litera ture to the end of 1978. I decided to update this to the end of 1982 with a few key references from 1983. It is some measure of the rate of progress in this field that the number of references almost doubled during this revision.

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Some General Comments on Transition Metal Catalysts.- 1.1. Catalysts and Catalyst Recovery.- 1.2. Supported Catalysts.- 1.3. Organic Feedstocks.- 1.4. Organic Reactions Catalysed by Rhodium and Iridium Compounds.- The Activation of CH and CC Bonds: Dehydrogenation, H/D Exchange and Isomerization Reactions.- 2.1. The Activation of C H Bonds in Saturated Hydrocarbons.- 2.2. Dehydrogenation.- 2.3. H/D Exchange.- 2.4. Unsaturated Alcohol to Aldehyde Conversions.- 2.5. Double-bond Migration.- 2.6. Geometric cis ? trans Isomerization.- 2.7. Intermodular Disproportionation Reactions.- 2.8. Valence Isomerization; Ring-opening Reactions.- The Formation of CH Bonds: Hydrogenation and Related Reactions.- 3.1. RhCl(PPh3)3 and HRh(PPh3) a.- 3.2. M(CO)XL2.- 3.3. HM(CO)(PPh3)3.- 3.4. Other Catalysts with Carbonyl and Related ?-Acid Ligands.- 3.5. Catalysts Derived from Alkene and Diene Complexes of RhI and IrI.- 3.6. Complexes of MIII as the Catalyst Source.- 3.7. Catalysts Derived from RhII, Rh24+.- 3.8. Reductions via H-transfer from Alcoholic Solvents.- 3.9. Supported Hydrogenation Catalysts.- 3.10. Asymmetric Homogeneous Hydrogenation with Chiral Rhodium Complexes as Catalysts.- 3.11. Hydrosilation Reactions.- Carbonylation and Hydroformylation Reactions.- 4.1. The WaterGas Shift Reaction.- 4.2. The Hydrogenation of CO; Synthesis Gas Chemistry.- 4.3. The Catalytic Reduction of NO by CO.- 4.4. Carbonylation Reactions.- 4.5. Hydroformylation; the Formation of Aldehydes from Alkenes.- Oxidation Reactions.- 5.1. Direct Reaction with O2.- 5.2. Other Means of Forming CO Bonds.- Functional Group Removal.- 6.1. Decarbonylation.- 6.2. Desulfonylation.- 6.3. Deoxygenation, including the Decomposition of Hydroperoxides.- Oligomerization, Polymerization and RelatedCondensation Reactions.- 7.1. Alkene Dimerization and Polymerization.- 7.2. Diene Oligomerization and Polymerization.- 7.3. AlkeneDiene Co-oligomerization.- 7.4. Oligomerization and Polymerization of Cyclic Alkenes and Polyenes, including Ring-opening Reactions.- 7.5. The Oligomerization, Polymerization and Addition Reactions of Alkynes.- 7.6. The Formation of Functionalized Oligomers and Polymers.- 7.7. Other Reactions Leading to the Formation of New C X Bonds.- Appendix. Tabulation of Catalysts and their Applications.- References.