Volume 23, Number 15, July 19, 2004
© Copyright 2004 American Chemical Society
Editor’s Page Our cover molecule is uranocene, (C8H8)2U. The preparation of this compound by Streitwieser and Mueller-Westerhoff in 1968 was a milestone in organometallic chemistry which attracted much attention in the organometallic community. Uranocene was the first representative of a new class of π-bonded cyclooctatetraene sandwich complexes. Its discovery promised a new and interesting chemistry, obvious extension to the other actinide elements as well as to the lanthanide elements, and interesting questions about bonding, since metal f orbitals are involved. Streitwieser, with the help of many co-workers and collaborators, did an outstanding job of developing the chemistry of uranocene in the years that followed. In 1984, Michel Ephritikhine and co-workers began research in organouranium chemistry, focusing on the half-sandwich mono-C8H8UX2 complexes and developing their chemistry very nicely. This essay starts out with an introduction to organoactinide chemistry, which began in 1956 with the preparation of the first cyclopentadienyl derivatives of uranium by Reynolds and Wilkinson. There is much more to organouranium chemistry than what is brought in this essay. The first 25 years saw a rapid development of this area, and organouranium chemistry continues to be an active area of research, with new compounds being prepared, novel structures discovered, new reactions developed, and applications in catalysis for organic synthesis and polymerization uncovered. As a relative latecomer to organometallic chemistry, organouranium chemistry has done very well. My thanks to Professor Arnold L. Rheingold for the cover molecule figure.
Dietmar Seyferth Editor OM0400696
10.1021/om0400696 CCC: $27.50 © 2004 American Chemical Society Publication on Web 07/12/2004
