Density Functional Studies on the Complexation and Spectroscopy of Uranyl Ligated with Acetonitrile and Acetone Derivatives

The coordination of nitrile (acetonitrile, propionitrile, and benzonitrile) and carbonyl (formaldehyde, ethanal, and acetone) ligands to the uranyl dication (UO22+) has been examined using density functional theory (DFT) utilizing relativistic effective core potentials (RECPs). Complexes containing up to six ligands have been modeled for all ligands except formaldehyde, for which no minimum could be found. A comparison of relative binding energies indicates that five coordinate complexes are predominant while a six coordinate complex involving propionitrile ligands might be possible. Additionally, the relative binding energy and the weakening of the uranyl bond is related to the size of the ligand and, in general, nitriles bind more strongly to uranyl than carbonyls.