Reactions of Th atoms with CO: The first thorium carbonyl complex and an unprecedented bent triplet insertion product

Transition metal carbonyl complexes, M(CO){sub n}, are cornerstones of modern coordination chemistry and organometallic chemistry. Carbon monoxide activation and reduction by transition metal atoms are important in a great many industrial processes. By contrast, the coordination chemistry of CO with the actinide elements is a relatively new area of research, in part because of the experimental challenges faced in handling and characterizing actinide complexes. The authors report a study of reactions of laser-ablated thorium atoms with carbon monoxide in excess neon. These experiments form the first thorium carbonyl complex, ThCO, which rearranges to CThO. Although this chemistry seems to parallel to that of CO with uranium atoms, it is distinctly different because of the intrinsic differences between Th and U.