@sellathechemist@mastodon.social
Post #3712076
2026-07-10 07:49 UTC
@mxchara@seattle.pink There was indeed. And the improved separation of the lanthanides during the Manhattan project was a big driver for the development of ion exchange resins and of solvent extraction, with accompanying developments in ligand chemistry. But Pimentel was really making a comparison with the d-block where you have lots of variable oxidation states, redox chemistry, complex covalency and so on. The lanthanides seemed a bit tame by comparison.
Replies (1)
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@mxchara@seattle.pink 2026-07-10 08:13
@sellathechemist@mastodon.social I suppose that's true enough! I was certainly surprised by the news (which I got from 200x chemical textbooks) that certain lanthanide salts were excellent Friedel-Crafts Lewis acid catalysts doing reactions conventionally done with vigorous AlCl3 treatment