This course is an inorganic chemistry course and it focuses mainly on the chemistry of the inner transition elements, the 4f series (the fourteen elements after lanthanum, regarded as the lanthanides) and the 5f series (the fourteen elements after actinium known as the actinides). Topics to be covered include their position in the periodic table; their electronic structure; the ionic and atomic size; the lanthanide contraction; the oxidation sate; methods of extraction; chemical and physical properties of these metals (4f and 5f elements plus the three elements: yttrium, scandium and lanthanum) and related most common compounds; importance and uses of the metals and related most common compounds and alloys; a comparative study of the two series.