Experimental evidence for magnetic exchange in di- and trinuclear uranium(IV) ethynylbenzene complexes

We report the preparation and magnetic property investigations of a structurally related family of mono-, di-, and trinuclear U(IV) aryl acetylide complexes. The reaction between [(NN'(3))UCl] and lithiated aryl acetylides leads to the formation of the hexacoordinate complexes [(NN'(3))U(CCPh)(2)(Li.THF)] (1) and [(NN'(3))(2)U(2)(p-DEB)(THF)] (2) as red-brown and yellow-green crystalline solids, respectively. In contrast, combining the uranacycle [(bit-NN'(3))U] (bit-NN'(3) = [N(CH(2)CH(2)NSi(t)BuMe(2))(2)(CH(2)CH(2)Si(t)BuMeCH(2)]) with stoichiometric amounts of mono-, bis-, and tris(ethynyl) benzenes affords the yellow-green pentacoordinate arylacetylide complexes [(NN'(3))U(CCPh)] (3), [(NN'(3))(2)U(2)(m-DEB)] (4), [(NN'(3))(2)U(2)(p-DEB)] (5), and [(NN'(3))(3)U(3)(TEB)] (6), where NN'(3) = [N(CH(2)CH(2)NSi(t)BuMe(2))(3)]. The measured magnetic susceptibilities for 1-6 trend toward non-magnetic ground states at low temperatures. Nevertheless, the di- and trinuclear pentacoordinate compounds 4-6 appear to display weak magnetic communication between the uranium centers. This communication is modeled by fitting of the direct current (DC) magnetic susceptibility data, using the spin Hamiltonian H = -2J(S(i) x S(j)). These results are consistent with weak ferromagnetic coupling for complexes 4-6 (J = 4.76, 2.75, and 1.11 cm(-1), respectively), while the fit for 2 is consistent with a near-negligible exchange interaction (J = -0.05 cm(-1)). Geometry-optimized Stuttgart/6-31 g* B3LYP hybrid DFT calculations were carried out (spin-orbit coupling omitted) on model complexes of 3-5. The mononuclear complex shows a triplet ground state with singly occupied degenerate f orbitals. The meta- and para-bridged species are computed to show very weak ferro- and antiferromagnetic coupling, respectively. All three complexes show only small net spin density on the acetylide-containing ligands. The monomeric phenylacetylide complex 3 undergoes a reversible redox couple at -1.02 V versus [Cp(2)Fe](+/0), assignable to an oxidation of U(IV) to U(V).