Lanthanides are of great importance for the electronic industries, this new book (from the EIBC Book Series) provides a comprehensive coverage of the basic chemistry, particularly inorganic chemistry, of the lanthanoid elements, those having a 4f shell of electrons. A chapter is describing the similarity of the Group 3 elements, Sc, Y, La, the group from which the lanthanoids originate and the group 13 elements, particularly aluminum, having similar properties. Inclusion of the group 3 and 13 elements demonstrates how the lanthanoid elements relate to other, more common, elements in the Periodic Table. Beginning chapters describe the occurrence and mineralogy of the elements, with a focus on structural features observed in compounds described in later chapters. The majority of the chapters is organized by the oxidation state of the elements, Ln(0), Ln(II), Ln(III), and Ln(IV). Within this organization the chapters are further distinguished by type of compound, inorganic (oxides and hydroxides, aqueous speciation, halides, alkoxides, amides and thiolates, and chelates) and organometallic. Concluding chapters deal with diverse and critically important applications of the lanthanoids in electronic and magnetic materials, and medical imaging.

David Allan Atwood was born in 1965 in Urbana Illinois. At an early age David moved to Tuscaloosa Alabama where he grew up and ultimately attended college. After graduation from the University of Alabama he moved to Austin Texas to attend graduate school at the University of Texas with Richard Jones as his advisor. He graduated with his PhD (in Inorganic Chemistry) in the Spring of 1992 but stayed in Austin as a postdoctoral associate with Alan Cowley until his wife, Vicki Ossink Atwood, finished her PhD (also in Inorganic Chemistry). From UT he moved as an Assistant Professor to North Dakota State University as part of their new Center for Main Group Chemistry (of which he was co-director). In 1998 David Atwood joined the chemistry department at the University of Kentucky faculty as an Associate Professor. He now has over 160 publications, 10 patents, and serves on numerous editorial boards, including the Encyclopedia of Inorganic Chemistry, a 10 volume set published in Fall 2005. He is the founding editor and editor-in-chief of Main Group Chemistry. His research interests include detection and removal of heavy metal contaminants such as mercury, cadmium and lead, from the environment, the preparation of nanoparticulate metal oxides, prevention of aluminum alloy oxidation, and the synthesis of new Lewis acid compounds to effect new reactions, such as the breaking of phosphate esters bonds like those found in nerve gas agents and pesticides and the destruction of methyl-t-butyl ether (MTBE) a widespread water contaminant.