The last 4 years saw the discovery of 8 new lanthanide and actinide +2 ions, Ho2+, Er2+, Pr2+, Gd2+, Tb2+, Lu2+, U2+, and Th2+. Complexes of these ions exhibit unusual reduction chemistry and reactivity similar to early transition metals. Semi-local density functional theory (DFT) calculations showed that these new ions have a 4fn5d1, 5f36d1 (U2+), or 6d2 (Th2+) valence electron configuration. Here we extend our computational work to transuranic actinide analogs of the +2 ions, which are difficult to investigate experimentally. We compare the stability of different configurations using semi-local DFT and random phase approximation (RPA) type methods.

Computational study of divalent transuranic actinides

251st National Meeting (2016)

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