Uranium(IV) imidazolin-2-iminato complexes: a new class of actinide complexes

Isabell S R Karmel; Mark Botoshansky; Matthias Tamm; Moris S Eisen

doi:10.1021/ic402806x

Uranium(IV) imidazolin-2-iminato complexes: a new class of actinide complexes

Inorg Chem. 2014 Jan 21;53(2):694-6. doi: 10.1021/ic402806x. Epub 2014 Jan 7.

Authors

Isabell S R Karmel¹, Mark Botoshansky, Matthias Tamm, Moris S Eisen

Affiliation

¹ Schulich Faculty of Chemistry, Institute of Catalysis Science and Technology, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology , Technion City 32000 Israel.

PMID: 24393057
DOI: 10.1021/ic402806x

Abstract

Acid-base reactions between imidazolin-2-imines (Im(R)NH) and [U(NMeEt)4] selectively afforded uranium(IV) imidazolin-2-iminato complexes of the type [U(NIm(tBu))4] (1), [U(NIm(Mes))3(NMeEt)] (2), and [U(NIm(Dipp))2(NMeEt)2] (3) depending on the steric demand of the substituents in the 1 and 3 positions of the imidazole heterocycle (R = tBu, Mes, Dipp). This new class of actinide complexes displays short U-N bonds and nearly linear U-N-C bond angles, suggesting a U-N bond order higher than 1, as well as extraordinarily high catalytic activity in the polymerization of ε-caprolactone.