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Title: Plutonium Hybrid Materials: A Platform to Explore Assembly and Metal–Ligand Bonding

Journal Article · · Inorganic Chemistry

In this work, we report the synthesis of five new hybrid materials containing the [PuCl6]2- anion and charge balancing, non-covalent interaction donating 4-X-pyridinium (X = H, Cl, Br, I) cations. Single crystals of the title compounds were grown and harvested from acidic, chloride-rich, aqueous media and their structures were determined via X-ray diffraction. Compounds 1-4, (4XPyH)2[PuCl6] and 5, (4IPyH)4[PuCl6] · 2Cl, exhibit two distinct sheet-like structure types. Structurally relevant non-covalent interactions were tabulated from crystallographic data and verified computationally using electrostatic surface potential maps and the quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM) approach. The strength of the hydrogen and halogen bonds was quantified using Kohn-Sham density functional theory and a hierarchy of acceptor-donor pairings established. In turn, the PuIV-Cl bonds were studied using the QTAIM and natural localized molecular orbital (NLMO) approaches to delineate the underlying bond mechanism and hybrid atomic orbital contributions therein. Energy decomposition (ED) and natural ED analyses were also explored to probe the bond mechanism and, more broadly, explore the efficacy of these techniques in studying these anionic systems. The results of the PuIV-Cl bond analyses were compared across composition via analogous treatments of previously reported [PuO2Cl4]2- and [PuCl3(H2O)5] molecular units. In summary, our study indicates that the Pu-Cl bonds are predominately ionic, yet exhibit small varying degrees of covalent character that increase from [PuCl3(H2O)5], [PuO2Cl4]2-, to [PuCl6]2-, while the participation of the Pu based s/d and f orbitals concurrently decrease and increase, respectively.

Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Chemical Sciences, Geosciences & Biosciences Division; São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830; FG02-05ER15736; SC0001136; 2017/17750-3; 2020/10246-0; 306844/2020-6
OSTI ID:
1957814
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA-172003
Journal Information:
Inorganic Chemistry, Vol. 61, Issue 45; ISSN 0020-1669
Publisher:
American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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