Initial and final chapters appearing in the table of contents without numbering

I think you are looking for the starred versions of the \section, \part etc and a \addcontentsline{toc}{}{}.

For example:

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{extbook}

\begin{document}
    \tableofcontents
    \chapter*{Introduction}\addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{Introduction}
        \section*{nontechnical introduction}\addcontentsline{toc}{section}{nontechnical introduction}
        \section*{intrudução technique}\addcontentsline{toc}{section}{intrudução technique}
        \section*{structure of the thesis}\addcontentsline{toc}{section}{structure of the thesis}

    \chapter{Chapter 1}
        \section{Section 1}
        \section{Section 2}

    \chapter{Chapter 9}
        \section{Section 1}
        \section{Section 2}

    \chapter*{Prelude}\addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{Prelude}
        \section*{Other open issues}\addcontentsline{toc}{section}{Other open issues}
        \section*{New techniques}\addcontentsline{toc}{section}{New techniques}
\end{document}

An easier solution is to use KOMA-script and the scrbook-class and utilise the addchapand addsec commands. They are similar to the standard commands \chapter and \section except that they are unnumbered. They produce both a running head and an entry in the table of contents.

\documentclass{scrbook}

\begin{document}
    \tableofcontents
    \addchap{Introduction}
        \addsec{nontechnical introduction}
        \addsec{intrudução technique}
        \addsec{structure of the thesis}

    \chapter{Chapter 1}
        \section{Section 1}
        \section{Section 2}

    \chapter{Chapter 9}
        \section{Section 1}
        \section{Section 2}

    \addchap{Prelude}
        \addsec{Other open issues}
        \addsec{New techniques}
\end{document}