Hayton, from Santa Barabara, presented his recent work with uranium (VI) compounds. The chemistry of Uranium (VI) is dominated by the formation of Uranyl (UO₂)²⁺.  However, the Hayton group was able to synthesize and fully characterize U(O^tBu)₆ (1). The compound was reacted with aryl-alcohols in the hope of producing U(OAr)₆ (2) compounds, shown below.

Unfortunately, due to the presence of lithium from earlier steps he prepared (3) and after doing a better job ridding his reagents of lithium produced (4).

The work highlights the difficulty in synthesizing stable uranium (VI) compounds, but perhaps if they don’t use the electron withdrawing fluorine on their arylalcohols they might better stabilize the U⁺⁶.

More Info: Synthesis and Characterization of Three Homoleptic Alkoxides of Uranium

Mitch

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