title: Probing the electronic structure and chemical bonding in tricoordinate uranyl complexes UO2X3- (X = F, Cl, Br, I): competition between Coulomb repulsion and U-X bonding.
abstract: While uranyl halide complexes [UO2(halogen)n](2-n) (n = 1, 2, 4) are ubiquitous, the tricoordinate species have been relatively unknown until very recently. Here photoelectron spectroscopy and relativistic quantum chemistry are used to investigate the bonding and stability of a series of gaseous tricoordinate uranyl complexes, UO2X3(-) (X = F, Cl, Br, I). Isolated UO2X3(-) ions are produced by electrospray ionization and observed to be highly stable with very large adiabatic electron detachment energies: 6.25, 6.64, 6.27, and 5.60 eV for X = F, Cl, Br, and I, respectively. Theoretical calculations reveal that the frontier molecular orbitals are mainly of uranyl U-O bonding character in UO2F3(-), but they are from the ligand valence np lone pairs in the heavier halogen complexes. Extensive bonding analyses are carried out for UO2X3(-) as well as for the doubly charged tetracoordinate complexes (UO2X4(2-)), showing that the U-X bonds are dominated by ionic interactions with weak covalency. The U-X bond strength decreases down the periodic table from F to I. Coulomb barriers and dissociation energies of UO2X4(2-) → UO2X3(-) + X(-) are calculated, revealing that all gaseous dianions are in fact metastable. The dielectric constant of the environment is shown to be the key in controlling the thermodynamic and kinetic stabilities of the tetracoordinate uranyl complexes via modulation of the ligand-ligand Coulomb repulsions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry & Key Laboratory of Organic Optoelectronics and Molecular Engineering of Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Su
authors.forename: Phuong Diem
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Dau
authors.forename: Yi-Heng
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.forename: Hong-Tao
authors.initials: HT
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Chao-Fei
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Dao-Ling
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Lai-Sheng
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li