Multimetallic Cooperativity in Uranium-Mediated CO₂ Activation

The metal-mediated redox transformation of CO2 in mild conditions is an area of great current interest. The role of cooperativity between a reduced metal center and a Lewis acid center in small-molecule activation is increasingly recognized, but has not so far been investigated for f-elements. Here we show that the presence of potassium at a U, K site supported by sterically demanding tris­(tert-butoxy)­siloxide ligands induces a large cooperative effect in the reduction of CO2. Specifically, the ion pair complex [K­(18c6)]­[U­(OSi­(OtBu)3)4], 1, promotes the selective reductive disproportionation of CO2 to yield CO and the mononuclear uranium­(IV) carbonate complex [U­(OSi­(OtBu)3)4(μ-κ2:κ1-CO3)­K2(18c6)], 4. In contrast, the heterobimetallic complex [U­(OSi­(OtBu)3)4K], 2, promotes the potassium-assisted two-electron reductive cleavage of CO2, yielding CO and the U­(V) terminal oxo complex [UO­(OSi­(OtBu)3)4K], 3, thus providing a remarkable example of two-electron transfer in U­(III) chemistry. DFT studies support the presence of a cooperative effect of the two metal centers in the transformation of CO2.