For a series of Fe(IV) =O complexes with tetra- and pentadentate bispidine ligands, the correlation of their redox potentials with reactivity, involving a variety of substrates for alkane hydroxylation (HAT), alkene epoxidation, and phosphine and thioether oxidation (OAT) are reported. The redox potentials span approximately 350 mV and the reaction rates over 8 orders of magnitude. From the experimental data and in comparison with published studies it emerges that electron transfer and the driving force are of major importance, and this is also supported by the DFT-based computational analysis. The striking difference of reactivity of two isomeric systems with pentadentate bispidines is found to be due to a destabilization of the S=1 ground state of one of the ferryl isomers, and this is supported by the experimentally determined redox potentials and published stability constants with a series of first-row transition metal ions with these two isomeric ligands.

We report a combined computational and experimental study to investigate the UV/vis spectra of 2,6-bis(5,6-dialkyl-1,2,4-triazin-3-yl)pyridine (BTP) ligands in solution. In order to study molecules in solution using theoretical methods, force-field parameters for the ligand-water interaction are adjusted to ab initio quantum chemical calculations. Based on these parameters, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are carried out from which snapshots are extracted as input to quantum chemical excitation-energy calculations to obtain UV/vis spectra of BTP ligands in solution using time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) employing the Tamm-Dancoff approximation (TDA). The range-separated CAM-B3LYP functional is used to avoid large errors for charge-transfer states occurring in the electronic spectra. In order to study environment effects with theoretical methods, the frozen-density embedding scheme is applied. This computational procedure allows to obtain electronic spectra calculated at the (range-separated) DFT level of theory in solution, revealing solvatochromic shifts upon solvation of up to about 0.6 eV. Comparison to experimental data shows a significantly improved agreement compared to vacuum calculations and enables the analysis of relevant excitations for the line shape in solution.

The coordination structure in the solid state and solution complexation behavior of 6-(tetrazol-5-yl)-2,2'-bipyridine (HN4bipy) with samarium(III) was investigated as a model system for actinide(III)/lanthanide(III) separations. Two different solid 1:2 complexes, [Sm(N4bipy)2(OH)(H2O)2] (1) and [Sm(N4bipy)2(HCOO)(H2O)2] (2), were obtained from the reaction of samarium(III) nitrate with HN4bipy in isopropyl alcohol, resuspension in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF), and slow crystallization. The formate anion coordinated to samarium in 2 is formed by decomposition of DMF to formic acid and dimethylamine. Time-resolved laser fluorescence spectroscopy (TRLFS) studies were performed with curium(III) and europium(III) by using HN4bipy as the ligand. Curium(III) is observed to form 1:2 and 1:3 complexes with increasing HN4bipy concentration; for europium(III), formation of 1:1 and 1:3 complexes is observed. Although the solid-state samarium complexes were confirmed as 1:2 species the 1:2 europium(III) solution complex in ethanol was not identified with TRLFS. The determined conditional stability constant for the 1:3 fully coordinated curium(III) complex species is more than 2 orders of magnitude higher than that for europium(III) (log β3[Cm(N4bipy)3] = 13.8 and log β3[Eu(N4bipy)3] = 11.1). The presence of added 2-bromodecanoic acid as a lipophilic anion source reduces the stability constant for formation of the 1:2 and 1:3 curium(III) complexes, but no ternary complexes were observed. The stability constants for the 1:3 metal ion-N4bipy complexes equate to a theoretical separation factor, SF(Cm(III)/Eu(III)) ≈ 500. However, the low solubility of the HN4bipy ligand in nonpolar solvents typically used in actinide-lanthanide liquid-liquid extractions prevents its use as a partitioning extractant until a more lipophilic HN4bipy-type ligand is developed.

The complexation of Am(III) with formate in aqueous solution is studied as a function of the pH value using a combination of extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy, iterative transformation factor analysis (ITFA), and quantum chemical calculations. The Am L-edge EXAFS spectra are analyzed to determine the molecular structure (coordination numbers; Am-O and Am-C distances) of the formed Am(III)-formate species and to track the shift of the Am(III) speciation with increasing pH. The experimental data are compared to predictions from density functional calculations. The results indicate that formate binds to Am(III) in a monodentate fashion, in agreement with crystal structures of lanthanide formates. Furthermore, the investigations are complemented by thermodynamic speciation calculations to verify further the results obtained.