Some scientists might consider group 2 chemistry as “boring, closed shell and all ionic, aqueous chemistry, where everything is known! It is not worth investigating”. How wrong they are! Far from forming only purely ionic compounds, this review will shed light on some spectacular molecules, showing that alkaline earth metal ions can behave similar to transition metal ions. After general remarks about each element, from beryllium to barium, mainly recent examples of group 2 coordination compounds will be presented, their bonding situation will be discussed and examples of applications, e.g. in catalysis, will be given.

中文翻译：

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碱土金属的化学性质：并非全部是离子性的，而且绝对不会枯燥！

一些科学家可能将第2组化学视为“无聊的，密闭的壳，以及所有离子的，水性化学，什么都知道！这不值得调查。” 他们有多错！该评论不仅仅形成了纯离子化合物，还将揭示一些壮观的分子，表明碱土金属离子的行为与过渡金属离子相似。在从铍到钡的每个元素的一般性论述之后，将主要介绍最近的第2组配位化合物的实例，讨论它们的键合情况，并给出在催化中的应用实例。