Scientists in the US have reported a new insight into the understanding of the bonding trends within, and the differences between, the 4f and 5f element series with soft donor atom ligands.
The coordination chemistry and differing bond lengths explain the covalency of different 4f and 5f elements, they say. The team studied a series of actinide versus lanthanide complexes.
This work is useful for the design and optimisation of actinide separation schemes (for nuclear fuel).
Read the Chemical Science article for free today:
Uncovering f-Element Bonding Differences and Electronic Structure in a Series of 1:3 and 1:4 Complexes with a Diselenophosphinate Ligand
M B Jones et al, Chem. Sci., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/c2sc21806b
