Preface

This book deals with the topic of lanthanides through six chapters. The first chapter is a short introduction that explains the nature and purpose of the book and the logic and signif‐ icance of its contents. The second chapter by Katarzyna Kiegiel et al. introduces novel appa‐ ratus solutions, for example membrane contactors in the extraction stage and different types of matrices (uranium ore, phosphorites, etc.). The chapter focuses on the fundamental ac‐ tions aimed at ensuring continuity of rare earth element (REE) supply, i.e. exploration and exploitation of new deposits, reduction of consumption of these precious metals in techno‐ logical processes, and their recovery from waste, which are very important from an econom‐ ic point of view. The third chapter by Dariusz Sala and Bogusław Bieda from AGH University of Science and Technology, Management Department, Poland, describes the de‐ velopment of life cycle inventory (LCI) to REEs based on secondary sources, conducted ac‐ cording to ISO 14040 (2006) guidelines. This chapter comes with many figures and charts that indicate many aspects referring to uncertainty in the input parameters used to create the LCI of REE recovery processes from secondary sources. The focus of this study is de‐ fined in its goal and scope, and was developed using primary and secondary data. Chapter 4 concentrates on lanthanide soil chemistry and shows how the soil chemistry of REEs may support soil science investigations. In this chapter, the author tackles another important field of lanthanide science that addresses lanthanide elements or REEs as an active soil sci‐ ence research area, given their usage as microfertilizers, documented cases of environmental impact attributed to industry/mining, and their ability to identify lithological discontinuities and reveal active soil processes. Dmitry V. Ladonin in Chapter 5 studies the content of forms of lanthanides in soddy-calcareous soils at different distances from the Cherepovets steel mill (Vologda region, Russia). The author concludes that the individual properties of lanthanides are clearly manifested in their interaction with the soil components. The largest part of the fraction, bound to organic matter, contains medium lanthanides, while the heavy lanthanides are bound to Fe and Mn (hydr)oxides. The last chapter discusses ecological and physiological impacts of lanthanides on algae as primary producers in aquatic environ‐ ments. This study summarizes knowledge of positive and toxic effects of lanthanides on al‐ gae to better elucidate their biological roles. Various applications and methods of use, including the possibility of remediation and lanthanide recycling, are also suggested.

This book will definitely encourage readers, researchers, and scientists to look further into the frontier topics of lanthanides and opens new possible research paths for further novel development. Finally, the book's editors would like to express their appreciation to the con‐ tributors and the IntechOpen Author Service Manager. We hope this book will contribute much knowledge to lanthanides and their applications in our lives.

#### **Nasser S. Awwad and Ahmed T. Mubarak**

Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science King Khalid University Abha, Saudi Arabia

**Section 1**

**Lanthanides and Environment**

**Lanthanides and Environment**

**Chapter 1**

**Provisional chapter**

**Introductory Chapter: Lanthanides - A Quest for**

**Introductory Chapter: Lanthanides - A Quest for** 

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.82914

Lanthanides are a family of high electropositive metals that intervene between the *s* and *b* blocks. They are sometimes known as the rare earth metals, where rarity reflects the difficulty in obtaining an element in its pure form, which has been a challenging task to achieve due to similarity in their properties, the original isolation, and identification of the lanthanides. The cheap prices encourage scientists to use lanthanides in various applications. The coordination chemistry of lanthanides has shown promising opportunities to use lanthanide-based reagents or catalysts in the preparation and study of broad spectrum of applications to new

Lanthanides have been the subject of many applications, such as, misch metals (alloy), removal of the impurities of sulfur and oxygen from different industrial applications, and as catalysts in the conversion of crude oil into a lot of products. Furthermore, the industry of ceramics uses oxides of lanthanide to color glasses and ceramics as well as optical lenses that used lanthanum oxide in binoculars and cameras. The most important application of lanthanides related to the nuclear applications is that they are used as control rods *via* absorption of neutrons to shut down the nuclear reactors. Lanthanides are considered promising materials as

Many researchers and scientists have come with conclusions that more efforts are needed to expand their quest toward the multidisciplinary character of the lanthanide research. Therefore, it is expected that these efforts will stimulate researchers to explore many more exciting discoveries in a variety of fronts to expand the body of knowledge available on lanthanide materials and explore new ways for their utilization in modern and futuristic applications. Hence, this book is going to give an insight into some of the applications taking place within the lanthanide research in recent times. It is a small effort to show interesting results of

shielding for γ- and X-rays produced from the fission product in reactors.

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Ahmed T. Mubarak and Nasser S. Awwad

Ahmed T. Mubarak and Nasser S. Awwad

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.82914

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

**Solutions**

**1. Introduction**

materials in various fields [1].

**Solutions**

#### **Introductory Chapter: Lanthanides - A Quest for Solutions Introductory Chapter: Lanthanides - A Quest for Solutions**

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.82914

Ahmed T. Mubarak and Nasser S. Awwad Ahmed T. Mubarak and Nasser S. Awwad

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.82914
