“…Complexation of the dioxouranium by macrocycles, particularly by crown ethers, has been widely studied (Folcher, Charpin, Costes, Keller & de Villardi, 1979;Fux, Lagrange & Lagrange, 1984;Brighli, Fux, Lagrange & Lagrange, 1985). Of particular interest has been the inclusion of the uranyl ion in macrocycles; however, the majority of structural studies concern complexes in which the crown ligand is linked to the uranyl ion via hydrogen bonds (Rogers, Bond, Hippie, Rollins & Henry, 1991;Gutberlet, Dreissig, Luger, Bechthold, Maung & Knochel, 1989) and few structural studies show a direct uranyl-crown coordination (Navaza, Villain & Charpin, 1984;Dejean, Charpin, Folcher, Rigny, Navaza & Tsoucaris, 1987;Deshayes, Keller, Lance, Navaza, Nierlich & Vigner, 1993).…”