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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Erli Lu
This is the authors' accepted manuscript of an article that has been published in its final definitive form by ACS Publications, 2020.
For re-use rights please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
Actinide metal oxo clusters are of vital importance in actinide chemistry, as well as in environmental and materials sciences. They are ubiquitous in both aqueous and nonaqueous phases and play key roles in nuclear materials (e.g., nuclear fuel) and nuclear waste management. Despite their importance, our structural understanding of the actinide metal oxo clusters, particularly the transuranic ones, is very limited because of experimental challenges such as high radioactivity. Herein we report a systematic theoretical study on the structures and stabilities of seven actinide metal oxo–hydroxo clusters [AnIV6O4(OH)4L12] (1-An; An = Th–Cm; L = O2CH–) along with their group 4 (Ti, Zr, Hf, Rf) and lanthanide (Ce) counterparts [MIV6O4(OH)4L12] (1-M). The work shows the Td-symmetric structures of all of the 1-An/M clusters and suggests the positions of the −OH functional groups, which are experimentally challenging to determine. Furthermore, by removing six electrons from 1-An, we found that oxidation could happen on the AnIV metal ions, producing [AnV6O4(OH)4L12]6+ (2-An; An = Pa, U, Np), or on the O2– and OH– ligands, producing [AnIV6(O•–)4(OH•)2(OH)2L12]6+ (3-An; An = Pu, Am, Cm). On the basis of 2-An, we constructed a series of tetravalent and pentavalent actinide metal oxo clusters [AnIV6O14]4– (4-An) and [AnV6O14]2+ (5-An), which proves the feasibility of the highly important pentavalent actinyl clusters, demonstrates the f orbital’s structure-directing role in the formation of linear [O≡AnV═O]+ actinyl ions, and expands the concept of actinyl–actinyl interaction into pentavalent transuranic actinyl clusters.
Author(s): Hu S-X, Zhang P, Lu E, Zhang P
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Inorganic Chemistry
Year: 2020
Volume: 59
Issue: 24
Pages: 18068-18077
Print publication date: 21/12/2020
Online publication date: 08/12/2020
Acceptance date: 05/12/2020
Date deposited: 05/01/2021
ISSN (print): 0020-1669
ISSN (electronic): 1520-510X
Publisher: ACS Publications
URL: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.inorgchem.0c02539
DOI: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.0c02539
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