Among the numerous applications of the rare-earth elements, the field of catalysis accounts for a large number. Catalysis represents approximately 20% of the total market sales of rare earths worldwide. As a matter of fact two main applications have been prominent in the last decades: zeolite stabilization for fluid cracking catalysts, and automotive post-combustion catalytic treatment.

The oldest use of rare earths in catalysis deals with the structural and chemical stabilization of the zeolites for petroleum cracking applications. For a long time this has been an area of application...

This volume of the Handbook is the first of a two-volume set of reviews devoted to the rare-earth-based high-temperature oxide superconductors (commonly known as hiTC superconductors). The history of hiTC superconductors is a few months short of being 14 years old when Bednorz and MUller published their results which showed that (La, BA)2CuO4 had a superconducting transition of 30 K, which was about 7K higher than any other known superconducting material. Within a year the upper temperature limit was raised to nearly 100K with the discovery of an 90K superconducting transition in...

This volume of the handbook covers a variety of topics with three chapters dealing with a range of lanthanide magnetic materials, and three individual chapters concerning equiatomic ternary ytterbium intermetallic compounds, rare-earth polysulfides, and lanthanide organic complexes. Two the chapters also include information of the actinides and the comparative lanthanide/actinide behaviors.