Synthesis and characterization of new thorium and uranium phenolate complexes

The reaction between the chelating amino bisphenole ligand (ONOO)H2 (1) View the MathML source[ONOO=MeOCH2CH2N{CH2-(2-O-C6H2-Bu2t-3,5)}2] and (ONNO)H2 (2) View the MathML source[ONNO=Me2NCH2CH2N{CH2-(2-O-C6H2-Bu2t-3,5)}2] with an excess of NaH gives the corresponding bis-sodium salts 3 and 4 quantitatively.The salts were reacted with thorium tetrachloride at room temperature to obtain the corresponding (ONOO)ThCl2 (5) and (ONNO)ThCl2 (6) complexes.However, ThCl4 and UCl4 react with (3) at higher temperatures to give the corresponding isomorphous homoleptic complexes (ONOO)2Th (7) and (ONOO)2U (8).We have also synthesized and characterized a thorium salicylaldiminato complex L3ThCl (11) View the MathML source[L=(C6H5)NCH(2-O-C6H2-Bu2t-3,5)], in order to study the effect of the bridged ligand on the molecular structure.