Researchers at Rice University have developed a method that allows dioxygen to form pi interactions with neodymium, a lanthanide metal, according to ScienceDaily. The result is a lanthanide oxo compound, a type of highly reactive molecule that scientists hope could expand the tools available in synthetic chemistry.
In biological systems, iron commonly interacts with oxygen in important ways, including in hemoglobin and in reactive iron oxo compounds used by enzymes that help break down drugs. Rice chemist Raúl Hernández Sánchez wondered whether similar oxygen-based chemistry could be achieved with f-block metals such as lanthanides.
A key challenge was that lanthanides were not thought to interact with small molecules like oxygen through pi interactions. To get around that, the Rice team used a ligand platform Hernández Sánchez described as a “basket” that can hold a metal in a specific position and encourage particular kinds of binding.
By placing two of these molecular baskets opposite each other, the researchers created an environment that held two neodymium atoms and a dioxygen molecule between them. Under the right conditions, that setup produced the previously unlikely pi interaction and led to formation of the lanthanide oxo molecule.
The study, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, focused on neodymium, but the researchers believe the same scaffold could work with most lanthanides and possibly actinides as well. They say the approach could help reveal new highly reactive compounds and may open a new chapter in lanthanide chemistry.
