Abstract
Compared to the overwhelming prevalence of f-element-carbon, -nitrogen, -oxygen or -halide ligand linkages, the use of metal-based fragments as ligands is underdeveloped. This contrasts directly to the extensively developed fields of d- and p-block metal-metal complexes, which are still burgeoning. This review outlines the development of compounds that possess polarised covalent f-element-metal bonds. For this review, the f-element is defined as (i) a group 3 metal; (ii) a lanthanide metal; (iii) the actinide metals thorium or uranium. The metal is defined as: (i) a d-block transition metal; (ii) a group 13 metal (aluminium or gallium); (iii) a group 14 metal (silicon, germanium or tin); (iv) a group 15 metal (antimony or bismuth) metal. Although silicon, germanium and antimony are traditionally classified as metalloids, they are included for completeness. We focus on complexes that have been structurally authenticated by single crystal X-ray diffraction, and we highlight novel aspects of their syntheses, properties and reactivities.
About the authors
Dipti Patel was awarded her MSc (Hons) in 2005 from the University of Nottingham. She obtained her PhD in 2009 from the University of Edinburgh supervised by Prof. Polly L. Arnold and Dr. Jason B. Love. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher with Dr. Liddle investigating uranium-metal bonds at the University of Nottingham. To date, her efforts have resulted in 11 publications.
Stephen Liddle obtained his BSc (Hons) (1997) and PhD (2000) from Newcastle University. After postdoctoral fellowships at Edinburgh, Newcastle and Nottingham Universities, he took up a Royal Society University Research Fellowship (2007) and was promoted to Associate Professor and Reader (2010). He has been awarded an ERC Starting Investigators Grant (2009), the RSC Sir Edward Frankland Fellowship and Bill Newton awards (2011), and he was a co-recipient of the IChemE Petronas prize (2008). He is Chairman of COST Action CM1006 and has 95 publications.
©2012 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston
