FWO Institutskolloquium - L. Natrajan "Investigating the Redox Chemistry of the Early Actinides Through a Combination of NMR and Luminescence Spectroscopy"

Date

Aug 10, 2017

Time

2:00 PM - 3:30 PM

Speaker

Dr. Louise NatrajanThe University of Manchester

Language

en

Main Topic

Chemie

Other Topics

Physik

Host

Dr. Peter Kaden

Description

Actinide science is currently experiencing a renaissance, with the emergence of exciting and less studied oxidation states, magnetic properties and reactivities previously unpredicted.1 This resurgence has been fuelled by their important technological and scientific attributes and more recently in response to the increasing impact of nuclear power in a societal balanced energy portfolio. In order to address such issues, we have begun a programme of work to establish a comprehensive understanding of the electronic properties and physical and chemical properties of the early actinides using emission spectroscopic techniques in combination with NMR spectroscopy. Our approach to this is to firstly use coordination chemistry to synthesise uranium compounds with ligands that model species that may exist in separation processes and in environmental scenarios (Figure 1) and use optical spectroscopy to understand and map both the chemical and physical behaviour of these ions. The next step is to extend this chemistry to the trans-uranics and applied to disproportionation reactions and redox events in solution. We have recently been exploring the optical properties of open shell actinide complexes in aqueous and non-aqueous media and will show that time resolved and multi- parametric luminescence can be of value in ascertaining the solution oxidation state and structural forms of discrete actinide complexes, particularly when combined with NMR spectroscopy.2 1. L.S. Natrajan, Coord. Chem. Rev., 2012, 256, 1583; Coord. Chem. Rev., 2014, 266–267, 171. 2. S.D. Woodall, A.N. Swinburne, N. lal Banik, A. Kerridge, P. Di Pietro, C. Adam, P. Kaden and L.S. Natrajan, Chem. Commun., 2015, 51, 5402.

Last modified: Aug 10, 2017, 9:38:12 AM