A density functional study of uranyl monocarboxylates

We studied uranium(VI) monocarboxylate complexes by a relativistic density functional method using simple carboxylic acids as ligands, i.e. [UO ₂(OOCR)]⁺ (R = H, CH₃, CH₂CH ₃). These complexes exist in aqueous solution and, for R = CH ₃ and CH₂CH₃, may also be considered as models of uranyl complexated by humic substances. We investigated mono- and bidentate coordination modes. Short-range solvent effects were accounted for explicitly via aqua ligands of the first hydration shell and long-range electrostatic interactions were described via a polarizable continuum model. The calculated results for the uranyl U=O bond, the bond to aqua ligands, and the averaged uranium distances to equatorial oxygen atoms, U-O_eq, agreed quite well with EXAFS-derived interatomic distances. However, the uranyl-carboxylate bond was calculated to be notably shorter than the experimentally determined value. Experimental differences between mono- and bidentate coordination, obtained mainly from crystal structures, were qualitatively reproduced for the U-C distance but not for the average bond length, U-O_eq. We discuss these discrepancies between calculated and experimental results in some detail and suggest changes in the coordination number rather than variations of the coordination geometry as the main source of the experimentally observed variation of the U-O_eq distance.