Publikationsrepositorium - Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf

The anionic form of 2-pyridone (2-pyridyloxy; PyO) has proven to be a useful ligand for the synthesis of heterobimetallic complexes and thus supporting bonds between transitions metals (TM) and/or main-group elements. However, this chemistry has so far been limited to these groups, although interesting coordination motifs can be expected especially with actinides. Together with the high coordination numbers and various oxidation states, actinide 2-pyridyloxy complexes would have the necessary flexibility to bind a variety of transition metals.
Initially, we were interested in binding modes of 2-pyridone towards Th(IV) and U(IV). We have synthesized and characterized a series of heteroleptic actinide 2-pyridone complexes [AnCl₄(HPyO)₂], [ThCl₄(HPyO)₄], [AnX₂(HPyO)₆]X₂ and [AnCl(HPyO)₇]Cl₃ starting from [AnX₄(THF)₃] (An = Th, U; X = Cl, Br) and various equivalents of HPyO (2-7 equiv.). In addition, recent results show that Cu(I) is a suitable transition metal to realize heterobimetallic An-TM complexes.