Preparation and hydrogen-deuterium exchange of alkyl and hydride bis(trimethylsilyl)amido derivatives of the actinide elements

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

The monomeric, hydrocarbon-soluble monohydrides and monodeuterides of the actinide metals (thorium or uranium) of the type HM[N(SiMe3)2]3 have been prepared for this research. Their reaction chemistry, n-BuLi followed by MeBr yields MeM[N(SiMe3)2]3 and borane in tetrahydrofuran yields BH4M[N(SiMe3)2]3, suggests that the hydrogen atom is hydridic. Pyrolysis of the hydrides yields the novel, four-membered ring metallocycle [(Me3Si)2N]2MCH2Si(Me)2NSiMe3 where M is Th or U. In conclusion, these metallocycles are the key intermediates in the hydrogen-deuterium exchange reaction that yields {[(CD3)3Si]2N}3MD.