Making, Breaking, and Elucidating Uranium-Nitrogen Multiple Bonds

Speaker:

Suzanne Bart, professor of inorganic chemistry, Purdue University

Description:

Redox-active ligands have proven to be versatile frameworks for transition metals due to their ability to support low-valent metals in various oxidation states. Our laboratory has demonstrated such ligands are effective at mediating organometallic and multi-electron transfer reactions at low-valent uranium centers. Recently, we have synthesized tetravalent uranium complexes with reduced pyridine(diimine) ligands. The electrons stored in these ligands facilitate multi-electron reactivity, enabling the synthesis of unprecedented uranium imido [U(NR)x] complexes with unique electronic structures. Accordingly, these results will be contrasted with attempts to generate these unique species in the absence of the redox-active ligand. Full characterization of the multiply bonded species, including interesting structural parameters, will also be discussed.