Organoactinide chemistry has undergone a renaissance over the past few decades as new starting materials, techniques, and equipment have made the synthesis and handling of these complexes much more practical. To this end, the organoactinide field has been dominated by the use of cyclopentadienyl (Cp) and its derivatives as ancillary ligands to support reactivity at the actinide metal center. With the aim to expand the realm of ancillary ligands capable of facilitating new chemical transformations, we have chosen amidinates as a suitable ligand scaffold. We were interested in the tunability and synthetic simplicity of these ligands, despite the scarcity and limited reactivity profile of previously reported actinide amidinate complexes. Looking to expand on actinide alkyl chemistry, we have synthesized a thorium mono-alkyl complex supported by three amidinate ligands and explored the insertion reactivity observed with chalcogenide transfer reagents. Unexpectedly, certain oxygen atom transfer reagents exhibit C-H activation prior to oxygen atom insertion, resulting in unique species.

Chalcogenide insertion reactivity of a thorium-alkyl complex supported by amidinate ligands

253rd National Meeting (2017)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.