Exploratory Synthesis and Redox Behavior of the f-block

The interest in understanding the f-block elements has been increasing because of the large applications of these elements across all fields of science and technology. The lanthanides are used in various technologies like car batteries and phone screens. The actinides are the basis of current nuclear fuel processes. The f -block has many interesting properties and has been proven to be fruitful in inorganic chemistry. Neodymium is redox inactive and was studied with a redox active ligand pyridine diimine to see if multielectron chemistry was viable. The neodymium chemistry is still in the preliminary stages of research, but there is possibility of fruitful reactivity. Recently neptunium chemistry was introduced to the Bart lab to study its rich redox chemistry. Neptunium’s fundamental properties have been investigated for the last 80 years with new bonding properties and behavior still being discovered today. Studies of neptunium began with investigating the trivalent oxidation state. Synthesis of new low valent trans-uranic starting materials is important because the fundamental chemistry of these trivalent compounds is not well studied. By creating Neptunium materials that are analogous to known uranium and lanthanide starting materials, f-block chemists will be able to apply their previously studied syntheses to a new element.