Robert H. Crabtree*
Yale Chemistry Department and Energy Sciences Institute, 225 Prospect St., New Haven, CT 06520-8107, USA. E-mail: robert.crabtree@yale.edu
The mechanistic studies carried out by pioneers such as Basolo, Gray and Taube not only gave us the starting point for future work but led to an increased respect for inorganic chemistry by chemists in general. The hopes of the mechanists that reaction design based on mechanistic principles would soon become universal have perhaps been only partially fulfilled, but the hope is now at least part of most grant proposals.
The spectacular advance of computer technology and theoretical chemistry has enabled one of the most important changes in mechanistic studies. At one time purely experimental, mechanistic studies now routinely include computational work. In the best examples of such work, the experimental and computational parts hold a dialogue in which each advance on one side suggests a modified approach on the other, going back and forth until a satisfactory answer is achieved.
This themed issue celebrates the achievements of the field by highlighting some of the best recent developments from the Dalton Transactions authorship. I hope the articles will stimulate the Dalton Transactions readership to apply similar methods to their own special problems.
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