The aim of this Specialist Periodical Report is to cover in a comprehensive
way the chemistry of the transition metals including the lanthanides and actinides.
It includes published data on the metal carbonyls but does not necessarily
include results concerned with organometallic complexes or spectroscopic
data which are published elsewhere.
This, the second volume of the series, covers the period October 1971 to
September 1972 and follows the layout previously adopted in Volume 1 with
only a few minor variations (see List of Contents). Thus Chapter 1 contains an
account of the Chemistry of the Early Transition Metals excluding Scandium,
Yttrium, and the Lanthanides. The Chemistry of the Elements of the first
transition series Manganese to Copper is discussed in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 deals
with the Noble Metals (Ru, Os, Rh, Ir, Pd, Pt, Ag, and Au) and Chapter 4 the
Lanthanides (including Sc,, Y, and La) and Actinides.
It is hoped that this volume will serve as a direct and convenient source of
reference and informationover the whole range of the transition metals. We
would have liked to have reported the data in a more critical way but given that
the report is concerned with essentially preparative procedures and covers a
vast amount of material scattered throughout the literature this is virtually
impossible. Again we would emphasize that each of the Reporters would
welcome constructive criticism and advice.