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Royal Society of Chemistry, Dalton Transactions, 6(44), p. 2554-2566, 2015

DOI: 10.1039/c4dt02323d

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The strength of actinide-element bonds from the quantum theory of atoms-in-molecules

Journal article published in 2015 by Qian-Rui Huang, Jennifer R. Kingham, Nikolas Kaltsoyannis ORCID
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

[AnX3]2(μ-η(2):η(2)-N2) (An = Th-Pu; X = F, Cl, Br, Me, H, OPh) have been studied using relativistic density functional theory. Geometric and vibrational data suggest that metal→N2 charge transfer maximises at the protactinium systems, which feature the longest N-N bonds and the smallest σ(N-N), as a result of partial population of the N-N π* orbitals. There is very strong correlation of the standard quantum theory of atoms-in-molecules (QTAIM) metrics - bond critical point ρ, ∇(2)ρ and H and delocalisation indices - with An-N and N-N bond lengths and σ(N-N), but the correlation with An-N interaction energies is very poor. A similar situation exists for the other systems studied; neutral and cationic actinide monoxide and dioxides, and AnL(3+) and AnL3(3+) (L = pyridine (Py), pyrazine (Pz) and triazine (Tz)) with the exception of some of the ∇(2)ρ data, for which moderate to good correlations with energy data are sometimes seen. By contrast, in almost all cases there is very strong correlation of interaction and bond energies with |ΔQ|, a simple QTAIM metric which measures the amount of charge transferred to or from the actinide on compound formation.