Supramolecular and Macrocyclic Chemistry of the Actinides

Abstract

AbstractSupramolecular chemistry is the field of chemistry beyond molecules, and mainly focuses on systems made up of a number of discrete molecular subunits or components assembled through noncovalent forces such as electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions, hydrogen bonding, halogen bonds, andπ–πinteractions. Supramolecular chemistry deals with issues related to self‐assembly processes, a major issue in actinide‐related supramolecular chemistry. Metal–ligand coordination in which the bonds are of moderate bonding strength is essentially also one of the noncovalent interactions that are suitable for constructing supramolecular systems. Similar to transition metal and lanthanide‐based systems, there are many kinds of supramolecular assembly architectures actinide polyrotaxanes, actinide‐coordination‐driven closed or circular architectures as well as supramolecular systems involving weak interactions based on actinide–ligand interactions. In the field of supramolecular chemistry, macrocyclic compounds take up quite a large portion of research concerning with self‐assembly and metal coordination. The excellent complexation capacity of these macrocyclic compounds has made them promising candidates for the construction of actinide‐macrocyclic assemblies and the extraction and separation of actinides.