This timely overview of the syntheses for functional pi-systems focuses on target molecules that have shown interesting properties as materials or models in physics, biology and chemistry. The unique concept allows readers to select the right synthetic strategy for success, making it invaluable for a number of industrial applications.A "must have" for everyone working in this new and rapidly expanding field.
Transition metal-catalyzed cascade reactions are an elegant approach to complex molecular scaffolds. Besides their esthetics and increase in structural complexity, they have also become mechanistic challenges for the combination of organometallic elementary steps. As a consequence, cascade reactions have revolutionized synthetic strategies and conceptual thinking. The authors highlight cyclization via carbopalladation and acylpalladation and Heck-pericyclic sequences. They discuss p-allyl palladium-based cascade reactions, Michael-type additions as an entry to transition-metal-promoted cyclizative transformations, and sequential or consecutive palladium-catalyzed processes, and show Pauson-Khand cascades, metal-catalyzed cyclizations of acyclic precursors, as well as cascade and sequential ruthenium-catalyzed transformations. Therefore, the reader finds overview of an exciting and highly dynamic field of a new and innovative methodological concept.