Comparison of Model-free Methods for Paramagnetic Chemical Shifts in Lanthanide and Americium(III) Complexes

NMR spectroscopy on paramagnetic compounds is a sensitive and versatile method for structural investigations of metal-organic complexes. Furthermore, separation of the overall observed paramagnetic chemical shift into parts due to covalently transferred electron spin density (Fermi contact shift, FCS) and distance- and angle-dependent dipolar electron-nucleus spin coupling (pseudo contact shift, PCS) yields insights into metal-ligand bonding. The evaluation of the pure FCS allows to determine the share of covalance in this bond. Covalence is thought to be the reason for some ligands’ selectivity for the selective complexation of actinide over lanthanide ions in potential partitioning processes.[1,2]
Since the advent of chemical shift reagents in NMR spectroscopy in 1969, several methods for the separation of FCS and PCS have been developed.[3-6] Modell-free methods rely on calculated values like spin expectation values, geometrical constants and crystal field parameters. All these values are still unknown for actinide compounds. On the other hand, the application of methods requiring a structural modell of the complex is only possible for metal ions with a large magnetic anisotropy, like the heavy lanthanides. As Am(III) has a low magnetic anisotropy, only modell-free methods can be applied to separate the observed paramagnetic shift and to elucidate the bonding in Am(III)-N-donor complexes.
Currently, we evaluate the applicability of several approaches for separation of FCS and PCS in lanthanide complexes and their transferability to actinide compounds. This includes methods based on calculated values as well
as temperature-dependent methods. We will report on our studies on a complete set of 15N-labeled lanthanide nPr-BTP and C5-BPP complexes and discuss the applicability of the methods on actinide complexes.
This work is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under contract numbers 02NUK020A and 02NUK020D.
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