Crystal field shielding effect

In general, overlap of incompletely filled p orbitals results in large deviations from pure ionic bonding, and covalent interactions result. Incompletely filled / orbitals are usually well shielded from the crystal field and behave as essentially spherical orbitals. Incompletely filled d orbitals, on the other hand, have a large effect on the energetics of transition metal compounds and here the so-called crystal field effects become important. 

The 5fn electrons of the actinides represent an intermediate case where there is still shielding of the crystal fields but it is not as effective as in the lanthanides. The crystal field interactions are larger than the lanthanides but not as large as in the transition metals. The lines of most transitions are sharp and all the actinide ions could be used potentially as probes of the local environments of minerals. 

In lanthanide elements, the 5s and 5p shells are on the outside of the 4f shell. The 5s and 5p electrons are shielded, any force field (the crystal field or coordinating field in crystals or complexes) of the surrounding elements in complexes have little effect on the electrons in the 4f shell of the lanthanide elements. Therefore, the absorption spectra of lanthanide compounds are line-like spectra similar to those of free ions. This is different from the absorption spectra of d-block compounds. In d-block compounds, spectra originate from 3d 3d transitions. The nd shell is on the outside of the atoms so no shielding effect exists. Therefore, the 3d electrons are easily affected by crystal or coordinating fields. As a result, d-block elements show different absorption spectra in different compounds. Because of a shift in the spectrum line in the d-block, absorption spectra change from line spectra in free ions to band spectra in compounds. 

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