Complexation by aminopolycarboxylate ligands has been a major area of research in lanthanide chemistry for almost five decades. From the 1950's, when the use of EDTA and HEDTA in ion exchange separations first provided multigram amounts of lanthanides of high purity to GdDTPA, which is currently utilized as an MRI agent, aminopolycarboxylates and f-elements have had a close association. Data from thermodynamics, kinetics, NMR, and luminescence are discussed to reflect the present understanding of the role of the carboxylate and nitrogen donors, of the number and size of chelate rings, and of hydration in these complexes. Results of recent studies of complexes of bis(amide) derivatives of DTPA are also discussed to illustrate further the significant factors in lanthanide -aminopolycarboxylate complexation.The lanthanide family of elements has played an important role which can be expected to continue in the development of coordination chemistry. In the early history of these elements, their close chemical similarity in the stable tripositive oxidation state made the task of achieving high purity for individual elements very difficult. Although the entire lanthanide series had been discovered by 1907 (with the exception of Pm) and mixtures of lanthanides had been found in more than a hundred minerals, it was not until efficient separation methods were developed that detailed and diverse studies of their coordination chemistry could be undertaken.The coordination chemistry of the lanthanide elements has interesting aspects because of the relatively high charge density of the cations, the strongly electrostatic nature of their bonding, and the variety of coordination numbers attained in different complexes. The regular, relatively small decrease in ionic radii across the family from La(in) through Lu(DI) (the lanthanide contraction) results in relatively small differences in chemical properties between the elements in the same oxidation state. Although similar radial contractions are observed for other rows of metals in the periodic table (e.g., 3d transition elements), the lanthanide contraction is much smaller. The effective ionic radius (7) of 57La 3 +(4f0) is 1.216 À (CN = 9) and that of 7iLu 3+ (4fl4), 0.977 Â (CN = 8), respectively. While the ionic radii of Ca 2+ (r = 1.00 A, CN = 6) and Na+ (1.02 À, CN = 6) fall in the range of tripositive lanthanide radii and also exhibit strongly ionic bonding, the lanthanide cations have higher charge