The article by Samara University scholars is published in European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry

The article by scholars of Samara University "Unusual Heteronuclear Uranyl Clusters with Aliphatic Monocarboxylate Ligands and Coordination Modes of Crotonate, Butyrate, and Valerate Ions" is published in the European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry. The results of the research being held within the grant from Russian Science Foundation (RSF) on the study of interconnection between the contents, structure and characteristics of chemical entities are represented in it.

Within the RST grant "Investigation of interconnection between the contents, structure and characteristics of uranium complex compounds with anions of mono- and dicarboxylic acids" the university scholars synthesize new combinations that have not been received and described previously. "The research of uranyl complex compounds is being done by several strong international research groups with high citation indices. This confirms the high interest of international scientific community in this theme", one of the authors of the article, candidate degree in chemistry, associate professor of Department of Inorganic Chemistry of Samara University, Anton Savchenkov, says.

The authors of the article "Unusual Heteronuclear Uranyl Clusters with Aliphatic Monocarboxylate Ligands and Coordination Modes of Crotonate, Butyrate, and Valerate Ions" became Samara University employees Anton Savchenkov, Denis Pushkin, Larisa Serezhkina as well as employee of A.N.Nesmeyanov Institute of Organoelement Compounds of Russian Academy of Sciences (INEOS RAS) Anna Vologzhanina.

Unusual for this class of substances heteronuclear uranyl ion clusters as well as the peculiarities of coordination of several widespread ligands are described in the article. "The results of this work can be useful for prediction of crystal structure and crystallochemical design", Anton Savchenkov says.

The key feature of uranyl combinations, that were managed to synthesize by the university scholars, is that they have an unusual structure. "Currently, data banks contain more than a million of structures of chemical combinations. Out of them non-centrosymmetrical cubic crystals make less than 1%, Anton Savchenkov says. -We manage to receive exactly such rare non-centrosymmetrical substances with cubic symmetry having high optical activity".

Within the work over the projects in this theme by the research group under the guidance of Samara University Professor Viktor Serezhkin about 300 structures of different combinations is placed in the Cambridge bank of structural data. But the scholars are not going to stop on this and are planning to add new carboxylic acid uranyl complexes with anions of mono- and dicarboxylic acids as ligands. Data about the first studied structures of coordination modes will be used for further crystallochemical analysis to gather information about the interconnection between the contents, structure and characteristics of entities - this is the key question of material science. 

One more aim of this research is to get electroneutral uranyl molecular complexes. "Entities containing such complex groupings are highly soluble and can help the migration and dispersion of uranium in the biosphere that is why their study is an important task from the position of ecology", Anton Savchenkov adds. Moreover, data about structure and characteristics of new uranyl complexes can be used for improvement of the processes of industrial chemical treatment of uranium containing entities.

For reference

The research group of Samara University Department of Inorganic Chemistry within the work over RSF grant "Investigation of interconnection between the contents, structure and characteristics of uranium complex compounds with anions of mono- and dicarboxylic acids" publishes articles in top-rated international journals. One of the recent articles was published in the European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry, which publishes articles of the whole range of inorganic, organometallic, bioorganic chemistry and chemistry of solids.

According to SCImago Journal Rank, European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry has quarter Q1 in the sphere of Inorganic Chemistry. According to Journal Citation Reports, in 2016 the impact-factor of the journal was 2.444.

In January 2018, scientific article "Crystal structures of uranyl complexes with isobutyrate and isovalerate anions" was published in the journal Dalton Transactions (impact-factor 4.029). The publication is made jointly with A.N.Nesmeyanov Institute of Organoelement Compounds of RAS and National Research Centre "Kurchatov Institute".