Nuclear power is a viable carbon neutral energy alternative to more conventional fossil fuel sources, but is accompanied by the risk of environmental contamination and the responsibility of storing spent fuel. To help address these concerns, materials that have the ability to sense nuclear contamination after a release event would be critical to determine the scope of the impact. Thorium and the more publicized uranyl (UO<sub>2</sub><sup>2+</sup>) are water soluble contaminants in nuclear waste, along with trivalent lanthanides. Actinide detection via an on-site sensor would greatly aide in the identification and remediation of release events. For that application, a modified salophen ligand with extended conjugation was synthesized via two successive condensation reactions to afford an O-N-N-O binding pocket previously shown to bind actinides. This ligand was found to form 2L:1M sandwich complexes with thorium and cerium and 3L:2M sandwich complexes with early and late lanthanides; uranyl bound in a one-to-one fashion, forming a hydrogen bonded tetramer. Solid-state characterization of these complexes is discussed, including rare thorium fluorescence and unusual cerium oxidation stabilization.

Synthesis and solid-state characterization of actinide and lanthanide sandwich complexes

254th National Meeting (2017)

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