EVOLUTION AND SIGNIFICANCE OF MOLECULAR D ESIGN CONCEPTION IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF STEREOSELECTIVE TRANSITION-METAL COMPLEX CATALYSTS

The mutual promotion of the development of stereo-selective coordinati on catalysts involving transition-metal coordination compounds and the development of the conception of molecular design of such catalysts w as discussed, as illustrated by three typical types of stereo-selectiv e coordination catalysis, namely, asymmetric synthesis, stereo-selecti ve coordination polymerization of alpha-olefins, and hydroformylation of alpha-olefins. With this discussion, it is shown that for the molec ular design of certain types of stereo-selective coordination catalyst s, there has already been sound scientific basis for the development o f computer-aided design(CAD).