“…Due to their widespread and important applications in magnetic materials, 1,2 electronic devices, 3,4 bioimaging, 5,6 synthesis, 7,8 catalysis, 9,10 materials science 11,12 and nuclear technologies, 13,14 there has been burgeoning interest in the fundamental chemistry of the f-elements over the past few decades. Since f-element metal ions, that is group 3, lanthanide, and actinide ions, are hard Lewis acids with typically large radii and high coordination numbers, they preferentially bind with hard bases (by the hard–soft-acid-base definition); the chemical bonds of these ions are understood to be predominantly ionic, thus their solution chemistry is dominated by N-, O-, and halide-donor ligands.…”