L This Thesis Comes Within Category D. Lj
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
REFERENCE ONLY 2 8 0 9 5 8 5 6 8 7 UNIVERSITY OF LONDON THESIS Degree Year S . o o ' l Name of Author £.»e£Y)/0 COPYRIGHT This is a thesis accepted for a Higher Degree of the University of London. It is an unpublished typescript and the copyright is held by the author. All persons consulting the thesis must read and abide by the Copyright Declaration below. COPYRIGHT DECLARATION I recognise that the copyright of the above-described thesis rests with the author and that no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author. LOAN Theses may not be lent to individuals, but the University Library may lend a copy to approved libraries within the United Kingdom, for consultation solely on the premises of those libraries. Application should be made to: The Theses Section, University of London Library, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU. REPRODUCTION University of London theses may not be reproduced without explicit written permission from the University of London Library. Enquiries should be addressed to the Theses Section of the Library. Regulations concerning reproduction vary according to the date of acceptance of the thesis and are listed below as guidelines. A. Before 1962. Permission granted only upon the prior written consent of the author. (The University Library will provide addresses where possible). B. 1962- 1974. In many cases the author has agreed to permit copying upon completion of a Copyright Declaration. C. 1975 - 1988. Most theses may be copied upon completion of a Copyright Declaration. D. 1989 onwards. Most theses may be copied. This thesis com es within category D. I I This copy has been deposited in the Library of ----------- l j [ ^ ^ -------- This copy has been deposited in the University of London Library, Senate □ House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU. Computational Studies of Molecular Actinide and Lanthanide complexes Kieran IM Ingram A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of London. Department of Chemistry University College London July 8 , 2007 UMI Number: U592055 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U592055 Published by ProQuest LLC 2013. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 I. Kieran I M Ingram, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources. I can confirm that his has been indicated in this thesis. Abstract This thesis reports computational DFT studies of three families of complexes (see below). Before presenting the results from these studies, the first chapter introduces the lanthanides and actinides and investigates their similarities and differences through a discussion of selected compounds of each of the series of metals. The second chapter introduces the electronic structure methods that were used in this research and mentions some of the relevant computational utilities. C hapter 3 discusses DFT studies of mixed water/hydroxide uranyl systems, [UO^HiO),, T- T)' for jt - 0 ♦ 5 with a = 5. and some a = 3, 4. The reasons for the observed lengthening, and resultant weakening, of U O v/ as jr increases are investigated. These studies show that this lengthening appears to be predominantly due to a reduction in ionic character stemming from charge build up on the U centre, and not from hydroxide / Ov/ competition for U 6J, as has been previously suggested. Time-Dependent DFT is used in chapter 4 to simulate the electronic spectra of [UO-jfNCN^] and [UOjiNPNfj] in order to investigate why these complexes are coloured red rather than the normally observed green/yellow of uranyl systems. This chapter involves some preliminary benchmarking calculations on three other uranyl complexes. [UC^CLfTBP^J, [UC^C^CTHFfj], [UO-jiNO;})-2 (TBP )-2 ], as there is as yet no literature suggesting suitable exchange potentials and/or basis sets for TD-DFT calculations on actinides. The conclusion was reached that the unusual colour of the nitrogen donor complexes is due to a small FIOMO-LUMO gap resulting from the relatively low energy nitrogen based ligand MOs compared with usual uranyl ligands such as O and Cl. Chapter 5 systematically investigates [M(N(EPR. 2 )2 h], M = Ln (Ln = La, Ce, Pr, Pm, Eu), An (An = U, Np, Pu, Am, Cm); E = O, S, Se, Te; R = H to investigate the ligands’ suitability for extraction of An(III) from Ln(Ill), and also to test the suitability of La and U as models for Eu and Am/Cm respectively. The results lead me to conclude that chalcogen donor ligands are extremely promising for successful separation of Cm from Am and Eu, but good separation factors of Am from Eu seem unlikely. Furthermore 1 conclude that La and U are not suitable models for Eu and Am/Cm as the 2+ capability of Eu seems present in with S, Se, Te; U shows considerable covalency in M E with the heavier chalcogens and there is no evidence of covalency in any Am E or Cm E. Acknowledgements Firstly I would like to thank my supervisor, Nik Kaltsoyannis, for his constant encourage ment, advice, and help in untangling my results, without which this thesis would not have been possible. I would like to extend my thanks to the chemistry department, specifically the members of G 19 past and present. I feel very lucky to have spent 3 years working with such intelligent and interesting people and will miss them all. A special thank you must go to my three good friends Luke, Andrea, and Dervise, who have played a larger role in my PhD than anyone else; their constant enthusiasm for science has been inspirational and their (almost!) unfailing good humour, not to mention the excellent technical help from Luke in particular, has been a huge comfort to me. I have received an enormous amount of support from my family and would like to specifically thank Mix and Julia as well as Bill, Jean, Marty and Clare, each of whom has helped me financially at some point and made the whole experience a lot easier than it would otherwise have been. My brothers Rendel and Estel have both listened with enthusiasm to endless accounts of my work and for this 1 am grateful, 1 only hope my words w ill filter down and influence my nieces' career choices! Finally I wish to thank my dear friends, you’re the reason I’ve loved living in London and therefore you’re a large part of this thesis. Kate, Helen, Sarah, Maria, Noel, Richard, John. Jamie, Greg, Andy, and finally Ed, thanks. I love you all. Contents 1 Introduction 17 1.1 The electronic structures of the/ elements ..................................................... 18 1.1.1 Lanthanides ............................................................................................ 18 1.1.2 A ctin id es ................................................................................................ 21 1.1.3 Comparing Ln with An compounds ................................................. 24 1.2 Research Projects................................................................................................ 27 1.2.1 A Density Functional Theory investigation of the geometric and electronic structures of [U0 2 (H2 0 )a x(OH ) x ] ( 2 x)+ for x — 0 —> 5 with a = 5, and some a = 3 ,4 ............................................................ 28 1.2.2 The Performance of Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory in the simulation of the electronic spectra of molecular uranium complexes ............................................................................................... 28 1.2.3 Covalency in the/ -element-chalcogen bond. Computational stud ies of [M(N(EPR2)2)3], M = Ln (Ln = La, Ce, Pr, Pm, Eu), An (An = U, Np, Pu, Am, Cm); E = O, S, Se, Te; R = H, Me, * P r 29 2 Electronic Structure Theory 31 2.1 Density Functional Theory (D F T ) .................................................................. 31 2.1.1 Exchange-Correlation Functionals ..................................................... 34 2.1.2 Time Dependent-Density Functional Theory (TD-DFT) ................. 37 2.2 Basis F unctions ................................................................................................... 38 2.2.1 Satisfying the Pauli Principle ............................................................... 38 2.2.2 Slater Type Orbitals ............................................................................ 41 2.2.3 Gaussian Type O rbitals ......................................................................... 41 2.2.4 Basis Sets and Nomenclature ............................................................... 42 2.2.5 Effective Core Potentials and the Frozen Core Approximation . 44 2.3 R elativ ity............................................................................................................. 45 Contents 2.3.1 Relativistic E C P s ................................................................................... 47 2.3.2 Quasi-Relativistic methods .................................................................. 47 2.4 Computational Methods