Homoleptic Aryl Complexes of Uranium (IV)

Nikki J Wolford; Dumitru-Claudiu Sergentu; William W Brennessel; Jochen Autschbach; Michael L Neidig

doi:10.1002/anie.201905423

Homoleptic Aryl Complexes of Uranium (IV)

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2019 Jul 22;58(30):10266-10270. doi: 10.1002/anie.201905423. Epub 2019 Jun 24.

Authors

Nikki J Wolford¹, Dumitru-Claudiu Sergentu², William W Brennessel¹, Jochen Autschbach², Michael L Neidig¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, University of Rochester, B31 Hutchison Hall, 120 Trustee Road, Rochester, NY, 14627, USA.
² Department of Chemistry, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, 312 Natural Sciences Complex, Buffalo, NY, 14260, USA.

PMID: 31119855
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201905423

Abstract

The synthesis and characterization of sterically unencumbered homoleptic organouranium aryl complexes containing U-C σ-bonds has been of interest to the chemical community for over 70 years. Reported herein are the first structurally characterized, sterically unencumbered homoleptic uranium (IV) aryl-ate species of the form [U(Ar)₆ ]^2- (Ar=Ph, p-tolyl, p-Cl-Ph). Magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) spectroscopy and computational studies provide insight into electronic structure and bonding interactions in the U-C σ-bond across this series of complexes. Overall, these studies solve a decades-long challenge in synthetic uranium chemistry, enabling new insight into electronic structure and bonding in organouranium complexes.

Keywords: MCD spectroscopy; homoleptic complexes; organometallic compounds; uranium.

Abstract

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