Determination of Uranium Central-Field Covalency with 3<i>d</i>4<i>f</i> Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the nature of metal-ligand bonding is a major challenge in actinide chemistry. We present a new experimental strategy for addressing this challenge using actinide 3d4f resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS). Through a systematic study of uranium(IV) halide complexes, [UX₆]^2-, where X = F, Cl, or Br, we identify RIXS spectral satellites with relative energies and intensities that relate to the extent of uranium-ligand bond covalency. By analyzing the spectra in combination with ligand field density functional theory we find that the sensitivity of the satellites to the nature of metal-ligand bonding is due to the reduction of 5f interelectron repulsion and 4f-5f spin-exchange, caused by metal-ligand orbital mixing an

SUBMITTER: Burrow TG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11328134 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature