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Stable uranium(VI) methyl and acetylide complexes and the elucidation of an inverse trans influence ligand series
Andrew J Lewis1, Patrick J Carroll, Eric J Schelter
1P. Roy and Diana T. Vagelos Laboratories, Department of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania, 231 South 34th Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, United States.
Abstract:
Thermally stable uranium(VI)-methyl and -acetylide complexes: U(VI)OR[N(SiMe3)2]3 R = -CH3, -C≡CPh were prepared in which coordination of the hydrocarbyl group is directed trans to the uranium-oxo multiple bond. The stability of the uranium-carbon bond is attributed to an inverse trans influence. The hydrocarbyl complexes show greater ITI stabilization than that of structurally related U(VI)OX[N(SiMe3)2]3 (X = F(-), Cl(-), Br(-)) complexes, demonstrated both experimentally and computationally. An inverse trans influence ligand series is presented, developed from a union of theoretical and experimental results and based on correlations between the extent of cis-destabilization, the complexes stabilities toward electrochemical reduction, the thermodynamic driving forces for U═O bond formation, and the calculated destabilization of axial σ* and π* antibonding interactions.
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