Arene-, Chlorido-, and Imido-Uranium Bis and Tris(boryloxide) Complexes

Xuhang Dan, Jingzhen Du, Shuhan Zhang, John A. Seed, Mauro Perfetti, Floriana Tuna, Ashley J. Wooles, Stephen T. Liddle

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We introduce the boryloxide ligand {(HCNDipp) 2BO} (NBO Dipp, Dipp = 2,6-di-isopropylphenyl) to actinide chemistry. Protonolysis of [U{N(SiMe 3) 2} 3] with 3 equiv of NBO DippH produced the uranium(III) tris(boryloxide) complex [U(NBO Dipp) 3] (1). In contrast, treatment of UCl 4 with 3 equiv of NBO DippK in THF at room temperature or reflux conditions produced only [U(NBO Dipp) 2(Cl) 2(THF) 2] (2) with 1 equiv of NBO DippK remaining unreacted. However, refluxing the mixture of 2 and unreacted NBO DippK in toluene instead of THF afforded the target complex [U(NBO Dipp) 3(Cl)(THF)] (3). Two-electron oxidation of 1 with AdN 3 (Ad = 1-adamantyl) afforded the uranium(V)-imido complex [U(NBO Dipp) 3(NAd)] (4). The solid-state structure of 1 reveals a uranium-arene bonding motif, and structural, spectroscopic, and DFT calculations all suggest modest uranium-arene δ-back-bonding with approximately equal donation into the arene π 4 and π 5 δ-symmetry π* molecular orbitals. Complex 4 exhibits a short uranium(V)-imido distance, and computational modeling enabled its electronic structure to be compared to related uranium-imido and uranium-oxo complexes, revealing a substantial 5f-orbital crystal field splitting and extensive mixing of 5f |m l,m s⟩ states and m j projections. Complexes 1-4 have been variously characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, 1H NMR, IR, UV/vis/NIR, and EPR spectroscopies, SQUID magnetometry, elemental analysis, and CONDON, F-shell, DFT, NLMO, and QTAIM crystal field and quantum chemical calculations.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)9588-9601
Number of pages14
JournalInorganic Chemistry
Volume63
Issue number21
Early online date1 Apr 2024
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 27 May 2024

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