The lanthanides and actinides (the f elements) are rarely studied in detail by chemistry undergraduates. More often they appear as an afterthought in bonding, spectroscopy, magnetism, coordination chemistry, and organometallics courses. This is largely because of a lack of an accessible text
treating the chemistry of these elements in one cover. Moreover, the placement of lanthanides and actinides in the closing pages of standard inorganic chemistry...