Handbook On The Physics And Chemistry Of Rare Eart. Two-hundred-year Impact Of Rare Earths On Science

Handbook on the Physics and Chemistry of Rare Earths volume 11 Two-Hundred-Year Impact of Rare Earths on Science Elsevier, 1988 Edited by: Karl A. Gschneidner, Jr. and LeRoy Eyring ISBN: 978-0-444-87080-3 by kmno4 Handbook on the Physics and Chemistry of Rare Earths, Vol. 11 edited by K.A. Gschneidner, Jr. and L. Eyrin9 ~) Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., 1988 PREFACE Karl A. G S C H N E I D N E R , Jr., and LeRoy EYRING These elements perplex us in our rearches [sic], baffle us in our speculations, and haunt us in our very dreams. T h e y stretch like an unknown sea before u s - mocking, mystifying, and murmuring strange revelations and possibilities. Sir William Crookes (February 16, 1887) With this volume we celebrate the contribution of rare earth research to the development of science since these elements' published discovery two centuries ago. These assessments inevitably suggest their probable future impact. The omens are propitious. This tome has been referred to, during its preparation, as the 'cosmic' volume. This was intended to suggest the key role the rare earths play in science from the terrestrial to the celestial. For example, the periodic table of the elements is certainly one of the grandest of human intellectual generalizations and the placement of the rare earths in that scheme completed it. 'Cosmic' is not too grand a term. This assessment of the contribution of the study of the rare earths to the structure of modem science is not an epitaph to a noble endeavor but an introduction to what some, anticipating the next hundred years, see as the century of the rare earths, socalled because of the expected largesse to science and technology of their unique physical and chemical properties. The chapters contained herein should allow the reader to assess the validity of this assertion. The prologue by H.J. Svec is a biographical account of F.H. Spedding whose extensive contributions to rare earth science during one-fourth of the two centuries since the discovery of the rare earths is indeed prologue to the third. This intellectual warrior lead a host of rare earth scientists in pushing back the enemy - ignorance across a wide front. The breadth of his interests and the intensity of his attacks puts him in the company of the dynamic Auer yon Welsbach who developed uses for these materials and the great Berzelius who entered the battle at the very beginning. The romance of the discovery and separation of the rare earths is narrated by F. Szabadvfiry. He has succeeded in lighting many dark corners of this confusing history and hence provides many new scenes in this lively yet serious saga. All in all, it is a tale of intrepid explorers and adventurers who opened up a vast, difficult terrain essential to the commonwealth of science. viii PREFACE The techniques of atomic spectroscopy were applied immediately upon this development to the identification of the new rare earths, dashing the claims of many and confirming those of others. B.R. Judd provides us with a definitive and perceptive account of the further success in the use of this science during the past sixty years to clarify the electronic configuration of the rare earths. C.K. Jorgensen records his own special insights into the idiosyncratic chemical behavior of these seventeen elements. The scope of his treatment begins with their primordial formation in the stars and includes the chemical basis of their classification and integration into the fabric of science. His cosmic coverage provides unifying insights into topics dealt with in other chapters of this volume. Magnetism in the lanthanides has been of interest at least since the observation of ferromagnetism in gadolinium by Urbain in 1935. Since that time these materials have been center-stage in the de