Advances in the chemistry of metallacarboranes of f-block elements

The chemistry of metallacarboranes of f-block elements has experienced considerable growth in the past 10 years. The recent discovery of many novel complexes, interesting reactivity patterns and new bonding mode in this field has made this chemistry very attractive, diverse and unique. This review summarizes the development in this research field since the successful preparation of the first metallacarborane of f-block elements. Achievements, problems and perspectives are discussed in this article. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.