Historical notes on homogeneous catalysis

A second process that came on stream in the fifties is the oligomerisation of ethene using cobalt complexes, but the number of homogeneously catalysed 

The majority of the homogeneous processes were developed for bulk chemicals as only products having a sufficiently large volume could justify the expenditure needed for the development of totally new catalysts and the engineering involved. It was only in the nineties that applications in the fine chemicals area took off, utilising the research results of the bulk chemicals area and the large academic effort that had been set up in the meantime. 

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