Schiff base thorium(iv) and uranium(iv) chloro complexes: synthesis, substitution and oxidation chemistry

New tetradentate Schiff base chloro complexes of U(iv) and Th(iv) are prepared by salt metathesis approaches. These compounds undergo clean salt metathesis with NaN to generate stable pseudo-trans azide compounds. The uranium dichloro complex also undergoes 2 e oxidation with excess NaNO to generate the uranyl derivative. All classes of complexes are characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction and NMR spectroscopy.