Thermodynamic study of the complexation of trivalent actinide and lanthanide cations by ADPTZ, a tridentate N-donor ligand

To better understand the bonding in complexes of f-elements by polydentate N-donor ligands, the complexation of americium(III) and lanthanide(III) cations by 2-amino-4,6-di-(pyridin-2-yl)-1,3,5-triazine (ADPTZ) was studied using a thermodynamic approach. The stability constants of the 1:1 complexes in a methanol/water mixture (75/25 vol %) were determined by UV-visible spectrophotometry for every lanthanide(III) ion (except promethium), and yttrium(III) and americium(III) cations. The thermodynamic parameters (DeltaHdegrees, DeltaSdegrees) of complexation were determined from the temperature dependence of the stability constants and by microcalorimetry. The trends of the variations of DeltaGdegrees, DeltaHdegrees, and DeltaSdegrees across the lanthanide series are compared with published results for other tridentate ligands and confirm strongly ionic bonding in the lanthanide-ADPTZ complexes. Comparison of the thermodynamic properties between the Am- and Ln-ADPTZ complexes highlights an increase in stability of the complexes by a factor of 20 in favor of the americium cation. This difference arises from a more exothermic reaction enthalpy in the case of Am, which is correlated with a greater degree of covalency in the americium-nitrogen bonds. Quantum chemistry calculations performed on a series of trivalent actinicle and lanthanide-ADPTZ complexes support the experimental results, showing a slightly greater covalence in the actinicle-ligand bonds that originates from a charge transfer from the ligand sigma orbitals to the 5f and 6d orbitals of the actinide ion.