Abstract
Organometallic compounds of the transition metals containing metal-to-carbon a bonds are in general extremely sensitive and unstable substances in contrast to the γ-bonded organometallic compounds of the main group elements. The reason for this is the electron deficiency in the outer orbitals of the metals, a factor that becomes much more important going from the transition elements to the lanthanides. The latter have 4forbitals in their outer valence shells, creating 16 outer orbitals that have to be occupied by 32 electrons. Therefore, preparing organometallic compounds of the lanthanides should present a great problem for the synthetic organometallic chemist. In 1925 A. von Grosse postulated the nonexistence of alkyl and aryl derivatives of the lanthanides.1

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