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Updated: Sep 10, 2025

Preparing an Isotopically Pure 229Th Ion Beam for Studies of 229mTh
Published on: May 3, 2019
Synthesis and Isolation of Thorium Dinitrogen Complexes: 5f Orbital Matters
Xuechao Yan1, Yuanjin Chen1, Yixi Wang1
1Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (BNLMS), Key Laboratory of Bioorganic Chemistry and Molecular Engineering of Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
None:
Thorium-dinitrogen complexes, long proposed as critical intermediates for actinide-mediated dinitrogen activation and bond cleavage, have not been isolated. In this work, three heterobimetallic [Cr]-N2-[Th] complexes featuring a Th-N2 moiety were synthesized via a metathesis reaction between a chromium(0) dinitrogen precursor and Th(IV) chloride derivatives. X-ray crystallographic analysis unambiguously confirmed their heterobimetallic [Cr]-N2-[Th] bridging geometry. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations revealed non-negligible 5f orbital contributions to the Th-N bonding interactions.
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