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SUMMARY:From Nuclear Fuels to CO2 Activation at Uranium Complexes - Chemis
 try Between Phobia & Enthusiasm - Prof. Dr Karsten Meyer\, Friedrich-Alexa
 nder-University Erlangen-Nuremberg
DTSTART:20111124T140000Z
DTEND:20111124T150000Z
UID:TALK32438@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Sian Bunnage
DESCRIPTION:Uranium and\, its in traces existing heavier neighbor\, pluton
 ium\, are the heaviest naturally occurring elements\, and they share one c
 ommon thing with each other: they undeniably have the worst reputation of 
 all elements of the periodic table.  Negative connotations through news on
  warlords and nuclear reactor catastrophes fuel the fear to handle and man
 ipulate the element uranium\; even within the scientific community.  Howev
 er\, human life on earth would not exist\, and the exploration of the far 
 universe would not be possible without natural radioactivity.  In this lec
 ture\, a general introduction is given on how radioactivity of naturally a
 bundant and man-made elements\, in e.g. plutonium-powered heart pacemakers
  and satellites\, impact our modern life.  A brief tour through basic inor
 ganic chemistry shows how pitchblende is transformed into modern nuclear f
 uels\, how organometallic chemists have discovered the element for basic c
 hemical research\, and how this field has sparked new discoveries of curre
 nt interest ever since.  In our efforts to activate small molecules of ind
 ustrial and biological relevance\, we have turned our attention to coordin
 ative unsaturated\, highly reactive\, low- and high-valent uranium coordin
 ation complexes.  For instance\, the Werner-type hexadentate tris(aryloxid
 e) tri¬aza¬cyclo¬nonane chelating ligand\, (t-BuArO)3tacn3–\, and its
  sterically more demanding and protective adamantyl derivative have provid
 ed access to reactive coordination compounds of uranium\, [((RArO)3tacn)U]
  (R = t-Bu\, Np\, Ad)\, in oxidation states III\, IV\, V\, and VI and cust
 om-tailored ligand environments.  These complexes display a pronounced rea
 ctivity towards carbon dioxide and related small molecules.  \n\nHere\, re
 actions are presented that result in CO2 coordination\, activation\, “di
 sproportionation”\, splitting\, insertion\, and functionalization.  It i
 s shown that charge-separated complexes of uranium are particularly reacti
 ve species that often lead to unprecedented chemistry.\n\n\nLeading Refere
 nces:\n[1] S.J. Zuend\, O.P.Lam\, F.W. Heinemann and K. Meyer
in Angew. 
 Chem. Int. Ed. 2011\, 50\, in press. VIP paper\n[2] O.P. Lam\, F.W. Heinem
 ann and K. Meyer in
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2011\, 50\, 5965.\n[3] O.P. La
 m\, S.C. Bart\, F.W. Heinemann and K. Meyer in Chem. Comm. 2010\,46\, 3137
 .\n[4] A.R. Fox\, S.C. Bart\, C. Anthon\, K. Meyer and C.C. Cummins in Nat
 ure 2009\, 455\, 341.\n[5] S.C. Bart\, C. Anthon\, F.W. Heinemann\, E. Bil
 l\, N.M. Edelstein and K. Meyer in\nJ. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008\, 130\, 12536.\
 n[6] I. Castro-Rodriguez and K. Meyer in J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2005\, 127\, 11
 242.\n[7] I. Castro-Rodriguez\, H. Nakai\, L. Zakharov\, A.L. Rheingold an
 d K. Meyer in Science 2004\, 305\, 1757.\n
LOCATION:Unilever Lecture Theatre\, Department of Chemistry
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